Matrospective Ian McChesney

McChesney Architects are a young architectural practice that designs high quality innovative architecture. Ian McChesney is a graduate of the Royal College of Art who went on to work with the leading practice of John McAslan + Partners, where he later became an associate. This position provided significant experience working on projects such as the redevelopment of the Royal Academy of Music, new offices for Art and Architecture Publisher Thames & Hudson and the De La Warr Pavillion in Bexhill on Sea. McChesney Architects was founded in 2000 and the practice soon made its mark winning an international open competition to design a series of wind shelters for Blackpool’s South Shore Promenade. The practice has recently continued its success, winning competitions to design a bandstand for the new Walkergate development in the city of Durham and a new Pavilion for Avenham Park in Preston. The practice recently featured in the Architect’s Journal 40 under 40 exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The work of the practice ranges from high profile competition winning schemes to small residential adaptations. The practice is design-led and aims to employ crafted simplicity and sensitivity to achieve finely detailed projects of the highest standards. Capitalising on the small scale of the practice, clients can be assured of close working links to achieve a carefully tailored project. In 2002 the practice won an open competition to design a series of swivelling shelters on Blackpool’s south shore promenade. The shelters are designed to rotate according to the prevailing wind direction to shield the occupants from the elements. The shape was born out of a distillation of the key elements that were required: a vane, which will turn the structure and a baffle that will shelter the inhabitant from the wind. Extensive testing and development work was carried out to establish the performance of the shelters, looking specifically at the accuracy according to wind direction and also the speed of rotation. This culminated in the manufacture of a full sized working prototype. The first shelter was recently installed on the promenade with a second currently in manufacture.

(Courtesy of www.mcchesney.co.uk)