Deconstructing the deconstructivists - Gehry
[mark chalmers]
I think perhaps everyone comes to the Maggies Centre at Ninewells in Dundee from a different angle: for what it’s worth, this quibble isn’t about aesthetics, rather the inappropriateness of the “style” of the building for its function, and also the approach taken to designing a respite centre. Many of us feel that a respite centre should be calm, a place of stillness and peace rather than embodying the restless geometries of the deconstructivists.
I clearly remember Doug Allard’s thesis scheme for a care centre on the same Ninewells site: he was still a student at Duncan of Jordanstone. His was a far
more sophisticated response to the users and the site: in terms of scale, the use of colour theory, formal harmony, the creation of quiet spaces, but certainly
not the outward expression of a “tourist attraction” that Gehry’s building has. Likewise, the Rachel House hospice in Kinross from ten years ago is fitter for purpose, as were Murphy’s Maggies in Edinburgh, and Page & Park’s Maggies in Glasgow: the early Maggies Centres seem to work better than the later ones.
Charles Jencks is the sponsor of the Maggies Centres, and he has exercised a powerful influence over their form. He is primarily a critic, who like Philip Johnson has had a chance to influence rather than just spectate in the creation of buildings. It could be said that his preoccupation with the jumping universe, as he calls quantum mechanics, has overtaken a genuine desire to make places for people.
Frank
Gehry
doesn’t build anything other than buildings which look like car
crashes, so you could predict that the Dundee
building would look like this, if not even more extreme. In
fact, Gehry recounted that messages from
Maggie
Keswick Jencks
received in dreams told him to calm down the architecture.
In quieter moments, you wonder whether the choice of Gehry
was important in terms of fundraising,
in other words, good for PR.
However, how much “extra” fundraising was needed to pay for
the baroque roof? Anecdotally, there were contractor comments about the
complexity of making what was practically unbuildable,
and that cost of the roof is obviously very high.
In terms of the forthcoming Inverness
building, I had a look inside a few weeks prior to its delayed completion.
All I’d say is that a building form generated in analogy to cell
mitosis is surely not the most appropriate
plan diagram, or more importantly symbol, for a cancer respite
centre. Also, the interior seems to betray a lack
of understanding
of spatial perception, given you may already be contending with
the disorientating effects of illness, coupled with the side-effects of
chemo-therapy treatments.
The charge which I lay at the door of these buildings is that they are
inhumane, because they fail
to understand the needs of people. They are, paradoxically, tourist attractions,
where visitors will disturb and rob the dignity of the terminally
ill.
Link: Frank
Gehry Architecture
jun 05
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Adrian Welch is an architect with Michael Laird Architects; he also runs
www.edinburgharchitecture.co.uk and www.glasgowarchitecture.co.uk which
act as a forum and resource for Scottish architecture
Maggies
Centres : Glasgow
Iconic Buildings
Santiago Calatrava
Terry Farrell
Foster & Partners
Frank Gehry
Zaha Hadid
Richard Meier
Jean Nouvel
Maggies
Centres : Edinburgh
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