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[tribute] RICHARD MACCORMAC 1938 - 2014 Rogier van der Heide remembers architect Richard MacCormac who died on July 26 aged 75.
Richard MacCormack and his iconic London projects, BBC Broadcasting House and the Wellcome Wing at the Science Museum, created with Rogier van der Heide.
I can’t express how thankful I am to Richard. When we met for the first time, I ran a small lighting design practice in Amsterdam. It was 1997, and Richard was very proud that we had met each other over the internet; he told it to everybody. It made him feel just so snazzy! Richard was looking for a lighting designer for the Wellcome Wing at the Science Museum, and invited me to present myself and my work. Me, not knowing what to expect, brought slides (we did not have a video projector at that time) from the opera ‘La Fedelta Premiata’ by Joseph Haydn. I had designed the lighting as a deep blue backdrop, with the soprano in bright orange in front of it, wearing a custom-made crown with little lights. Richard loved the images of the opera, in particular the deep blue. We discovered that we share a real passion for that magic, electric blue, slightly disturbing because the human eye is so insensitive to it. That day I got to know Richard’s unique intelligence, broad cultural interest, and incredible curiosity for everything and everyone, not to mention his great ability to share and to inspire. Richard was genuinely interested in my ideas like no-one was before. We talked the rest of the day about blue and orange, about James Turrell and how we would work on the Wellcome Wing. We started a collaboration and friendship that continued until this year. In Spitalfields, the place where everyone seemed to know Richard and where he found his love Jocasta who moved in next door, I sometimes had soup with them in her kitchen; Jocasta curiously asking about life in Amsterdam, and Richard just watching her and loving her. For the Science Museum, we designed ‘The Big Blue Space’ as we called it, and Richard could always open up your mind for something new. He was passionate about developing a way to detail and execute the lighting design very precisely. We created a series of scale models to explore the interaction of light, space and a newly designed material: a fibre glass, translucent scrim, floating in front of the concrete walls, the gap being filled with light of Richard’s favourite, deep blue colour. Richard came several times to Amsterdam, to work in our lab: looking through one metre long cardboard tubes we took an ‘isolated view’ on exhibitry, slowly increasing the amount of blue light until Richard detected it and shouted “Stop”! We then measured the blue illuminance and used those numbers to further develop the louver system for the façade. Who had ever designed a building that way! I think it is his real appreciation for the sensory world and bringing that to modern architecture that characterises Richard’s work.
Throughout the project, he was incredibly productive, and Richard’s drive and inspiring collaboration meant we even created a model of part of the Wellcome Wing scaled 1:5 so we could witness the interaction of all the details we developed. We put it up in his lobby, where Richard called it “The Big Architect’s Killer” (it looked like a giant version of a blue light insect killer of the type you find at the butcher). It was his humour and self irony that could always brighten up any situation, and Richard’s charm meant that everyone wanted to collaborate with him, or be near him at least. We completed Richard’s Wellcome Wing and continued working on many projects together: an exhibition in the John Soane Museum, work for Tate Modern, for Tate Britain, advise on his projects such as the deep blue Southwark tube station with Alexander Beleschenko and, of course, in 2002 Broadcasting House, the building that allowed the BBC to consolidate in the centre of London. We designed – in Richard’s beloved deep blue – a holistic and integrated lighting scheme. It is a shame that the project did not end favourably for Richard. He got sacked because he stood strong for his principles, and moreover for his people, due to over 300 design changes and probably as many budget cuts. It characterises Richard that, this year, he phoned me up to ask to write to the BBC, and explain to them what their building lighting could have been. For Richard, that was natural, he did exactly what he did so many times before: working without compromises, and not giving up. An architect’s architect, who defended his principles and his ethics until the very end. When we presented a talk together in London or elsewhere, fifteen minutes before Richard always suggested a visit to a nearby pub to have a glass of wine… or two. As a speaker, Richard was very gifted, with natural charm and intelligence. He made an effort to always engage his audience. Even in that sense I learnt a lot from him. Oh, and he recently wrote a book, ‘two houses in Spitalfields’, about the homes of Jocasta and himself. Next to each other and filled with illusion, and so many stories… With secret doors connecting them and with the many colours that Jocasta brought to Richard’s life. And my friend is now dead. I miss Richard MacCormac dearly; I am just so thankful to him. It is by no means an exaggeration to say that my career as a lighting designer has been defined by Richard’s presence and involvement early on. It makes him one of the most special people. Thank you Richard, I am happy that for you, being in heaven, the sky is always blue.