LONDON.- This winter the
Royal Academy of Arts presents an exhibition of work from Richard MacCormac RA. This provides the opportunity to view key projects that illustrate Richard MacCormac and that of his practice MJP Architects place within contemporary British architecture. The exhibition includes a range of works such as the Ruskin Archive building and the Wellcome Wing at the London Science Museum.
The exhibition acts as a visual summary of the forthcoming publication Building Ideas on the work of Richard MacCormac and MJP Architects. It explores how the architecture of the practice has developed over time and traces the evolution of ideas that are routed in geometry, the nature of materials, and in highly specific responses to context and culture. Four distinct sections show the range of architectural language that has created a complex and authentic modern architecture that is engaged with historic precedent.
Richard MacCormac RA trained at Cambridge and the Bartlett School at UCL, and began his career working on housing schemes for the London Borough of Merton before starting his own practice in 1974. He then worked on a series of memorable university buildings, mainly in Oxford and Cambridge.
Since the early 1980s MacCormac has become increasingly interested in the relationship between art and architecture. Combining the different sensibilities of artists and designers helped to challenge the assumptions of both and leads to greater levels of insight and meaning.
Richard MacCormac was elected as a Royal Academician in 1993.