Focus: Alex McCuaig Profile
Founder and head of museum design specialist MET Studio Alex McCuaig talks to FX.
Words by David Tarpey
‘I learned almost everything I know about design from my mentor James Gardner [museum and exhibition designer]. He was remarkable, quite difficult at times but very warm to those he liked, and he showed me a lot of trust. He threw me in at the deep end and allowed me to go and fire-fight worldwide, and he would work right through the night alongside me (and other colleagues) to find a resolution to a design problem. I remember seeing the launch of the QE2 on the Clyde when I was a boy – and then one day I worked for my idol who had designed its interiors and super structure!’
Inside the entrance of Iet (Institute of engineering and technology), Savoy Place, London, designed by Met Studio
So recalls Alex McCuaig, chairman and founder of MET Studio, one of the world’s foremost experiential design agencies. He told FX: ‘James Gardner was responsible for experiential design at the Montreal Expo in 1967 (generally regarded as the 20th century’s most successful world fair) and we resurrected this approach to design at MET. We took the skills and crafts and looked at how museums could be more responsive to modern lifestyles while also being educational and entertaining.
Preliminary rendering of the exterior of Museum MACAN in Indonesia
‘We’ve done it at the Hong Kong Wetland Park, which is a fun and interactive experience. The days of a museum simply presenting its collections are gone. Curators now are constantly looking for something unique and are leapfrogging each other to come up with new ideas. They are now asking: How do we live? The most successful design projects are those where we can have a collaborative approach and work with all the people around us with trust. Museums in the UK have come a long way but it’s often a matter of how much money is available to spend on creativity. Some of the country’s parochial museums really struggle with budgets, although now, the Heritage Lottery Fund is starting to spread the money around the UK.
Detail from the Manchester United Experience, Macau
We have some of the world’s best creative talent here, but in some other countries they are willing to pay to attract that talent out there. For example, the Museum of Environmental Sciences in Guadalajara, Mexico – where we designed three exhibitions – creates a new paradigm with ideas such as landscaped pathways linking buildings and open-air courtyards providing natural light. Mexico is a great place for this as its society is a confluence of so many nationalities and cultures.’
MET’s clients are varied and include London’s Natural History Museum, the Imperial War Museum and the National Army Museum, but its reach is far and varied. The Hong Kong City Gallery also features on its client list, as does the Manchester United Experience, a 900 sq m visitor experience concept in the Venetian shopping centre in Macau. Then there’s Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research… the list goes on.
The IET, Savoy Place
But a current McCuaig favourite project is the RAF Museum in north-west London. Due for completion in 2019, it will commemorate the centenary of the founding of the Royal Air Force. Unfortunately, McCuaig can say little of detail about the project for the time being other than ‘It will be absolutely marvellous and will let people see a story that we’re all aware of but this will be from personal perspectives. People think they know the story but this will really show the personal heroism and honour behind the big picture.’
But McCuaig talks with as much passion about working with the Kent Fire & Rescue Service to develop an interactive road safety exhibition [opened March this year] as he does about exotic projects such as the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (MACAN) in Nusantara, Indonesia. For him it’s about bringing stories alive, allowing the visitor to ‘live’ these stories and to experience the reality, whether that be the consequences of reckless driving or understanding the significance of a 500-year-old sword. For him it’s about education, learning and accessibility to new worlds and new understandings.
The Alt gallery at the MCA (Museo de Ciencias ambientales), in Guadalajara, Mexico
Of a project working with Buckfast Abbey in Devon to highlight its wine-making history he says: ‘It’s been so great working with the monks and the abbot and to be able to learn and share the story of 1,500 years of Benedictine monasticism across Europe.’ And of London’s Imperial War Museum, he says: ‘That’s a fantastic museum! And they really work with their objects. The stories there all revolve around the objects.
And it’s all about telling stories. This trend is becoming the norm around the world. We’re starting to build monuments to culture, and what was once an artefact based approach is now firmly focused on education.’
