MCA Installation
Cafe Loco
Quite frankly, the fact that on a hot ›› November night in Sydney last century the ›› MSJ installation at the MCA only lasted for a ›› single p.m. with drinks was all in its favour.
This was not an installation from which to ›› gain bulky substance, heaps of hard data ›› and craven images, but rather of fleeting ›› impressions, like glances at trays of sushi or ›› tantalising tapas: eye-food rather than ›› mental nourishment.
The physical installation consisted of ten ›› highly tectonic black canted slabs, about the ›› size and shape of those temporary plastic ›› traffic barriers, but much more chic and with ›› just a hint of hybrid Darth Vader. Along the ›› top of each unit a backlit slot showed ›› projects via small colour transparencies ›› which glowed like luminous deep sea ›› creatures, none bigger than an open hand.
Enchanting impressions were fabricated for ›› one night only, rather than the long-lasting, ›› deep and meaningful, information and value-judgement-
packed presentations that one ›› meets so often in the architectural journals.
Notable amongst the MSJ projects in ›› NSW are the tight, bright metal surfaces, ›› edges and junctions of the Cafe Loco at the ›› Powerhouse Museum, the courageously vivid ›› blue wall at Glenmore Park High School, the ›› sober shuffle of contrasting planes for the ›› NSW Lotteries Head Office, Homebush Bay, ›› the sprightly leap of ironbark columns and ›› steel portal frames across the dressage ›› arena of the Equestrian Centre at Centennial ›› Park, a benignly sensitive familial ›› environment for children with limited life ›› expectancies at Manly and in China, an ›› audacious competition entry for an airport ›› at Qingdao.
The occasion was part enticement, part ›› amusement and a good deal of hospitality – ›› a sort of rites of passage celebration, as one ›› of Australia’s most lasting architectural firms ›› cast itself into a questing mode.
Nostalgic reminiscence of the firm we ›› used to know as McConnel Smith and ›› Johnson prompted thoughts of past ›› luminaries like Ken McConnel, Tony Moore ›› and Tom Heath as well as the durable, ›› retired partners like Stan Smith and Louise ›› Cox, and the ever-enduring Peter Johnson.
But this transitory installation was not ›› meant to be a wake, rather an awake call ›› from the oncoming brigade – campaigners ›› like Mark Willett, Michael Harvey and Bianca ›› Wendt, who conceived the showcasing of ›› some of the firm’s recent projects and the ›› rebranding of the firm with an acronymic ›› title. (Architectural firms have been re-jigging ›› their letterheads a lot lately and the acronym ›› is in vogue. I am pleased I am not in ›› partnership with Portman and Ozenfant.)
Neville Quarry is an architect based
in Sydney
