When You Lean

 
The best modern architecture is in Adelaide. There is a feeling that a life has to be made whole via the route of its modernity. Much of what was made there at its founding are only traces of some very fine Victorian and Georgian architecture dotted around the square mile grid. Its best architect of recent times is still the late Jack McConnell.

It is my contention that such disciplined modernism is not possible today when one learns that Jack McConnell was trained in the Beaux Art tradition. He knew when to lean on the essential principles even as he was trying to be on the vanguard of that new and challenging mood. The modernists have changed our look but only a few got a whiff of McConnell's method, quite evidently. Yet, the vision of today's world is charged with hyperbole, not the quiet reality of a stable background to a serene sense of being.

This house in all its starkness has a mysterious sensuality. The pool, in a city where the summers are hot, is especially appealing. When I had the good fortune once to peep in, I wondered at the genius of its placement. It is full of promise that yes, a new world, a fresh start, here may well be possible.

There is an innate sense of order in the proportionally pleasing rhythm between column and light. The idea of such a use as swimming being essentially 'internal' is a powerful statement in working urbanism. I find the fact that I can actually talk about this building, in itself, fascinating.

 
Summer 2016: The House that Jack McConnell built