Plain Modern: The Architecture of Brian MacKay-Lyons - Softcover

Quantrill, Malcolm

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1568984774 ISBN 13: 9781568984773

Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005

Synopsis

It's been our distinct pleasure over the past few years to publish monographs on a select group of young architects and firms whose work represents the best of contemporary design thinking while retaining a distinctive regional sensibility. The Nova-Scotian architect Brian MacKay-Lyons fits neatly into this distinguished list, which includes Marlon Blackwell in the Ozarks, Rick Joy in the Southwest, andMiller/Hull in the Northwest.

Those familiar with Nova Scotia understand the austere beauty of this Canadian landscape, with its wide open skies and rugged terrain pushing up against the Atlantic. MacKay-Lyons's work responds to this unique topography and to the vernacular building traditions that define its communities. His houses, commercial buildings, and public projects combine regional forms with local materials, technologies, and building practices to create works that are linked to their environments right down to their DNA.Peaked gables, shed roofs, and sliding doors are inspired by local barn types; corrugated metal cladding comes from the buildings used by the areas fishing industry; structural wooden frames are based on local ship-building traditions. These elements communicate a sense of place that is sophisticated, accessible, and free of sentimentality.

Novelist and historian Malcolm Quantrill weaves together an intimate portrait of MacKay-Lyons and his work, elucidating the "peculiar regionality" of his subject's architecture.

A New Voices monograph published with The Graham Foundation.

About this title

About the Author:

Malcolm Quantrill is a distinguished professor of architecture at Texas A & M University, in College Station, Texas.

Review:

...as concise, lucid and anchored in a sense of place as homes and public structures MacKay-Lyons' become known for. -- Azure, Jan/Feb 2006

...radiates a sense of timelessness so elusive in today's world... -- Dwell, September/October 2005

MacKay-Lyons has erected a legacy of plain Modern houses informed by local vernacular forms, building materials, and conventions. . . . MacKay-Lyons's project descriptions are as plain, direct, and appealing as his buildings. -- Architectural Record, April 2007

About this edition

• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1568984774
• ISBN 13: 9781568984773
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 178