Abstract buildings exude contemporary interpretation of local forms, materials
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| Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, principal at Marlon Blackwell Architects, Fayetteville, Ark. |
A silver, trapezoidal structure peaks above the trees in the foothills of the Ozarks in northwest Arkansas. It has a house on the top and horse barn on the bottom. In another wooded area, a rusty steel box reaches into a ravine. Elsewhere in the community, corrugated metal boxes configured in geometric shapes with sharp corners house a church, schools and other gathering places.
The abstract buildings are the vision of Marlon Blackwell, FAIA, principal at Fayetteville, Ark.-based Marlon Blackwell Architects. Blackwell’s designs interpret local forms and materials in a contemporary way that challenges the status quo of architecture in rural and suburban environments.
Transforming Design
In one project, Blackwell transformed a workspace into a place of worship. A former welding shed became a modern religious facility, St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church in Springdale, Ark. Blackwell says box-rib metal panels common in the region, sometimes referred to as ag-rib or corrugated, were fabricated with custom corner transitions and trim to create a hybrid system with seamless aesthetics.
“We make it blend right in with the surface, and that just gives it a really crisp, clean edge,” Blackwell says. “We even course our windows and doors to it so that they blend right in with the coursing of the metal ribs. It’s kind of taught, abstract.”
The American Institute of Architects (AIA) recognized the addition and renovation project with its 2013 Honor Award. “What we were basically doing is high design in places you wouldn’t expect to find it,” Blackwell says. “Our mission is to demonstrate that architecture can happen anywhere, at any scale, for any budget and for anyone.”
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| Photo: Timothy Hursley |
Missing Middle
Blackwell says architecture is often used for upscale and large projects, accessible to wealthy people and, in the case of publically funded low-income housing projects, underserved people. “But it’s in the middle where very often it’s seen as a true luxury design; you just don’t get it,” he says. “All you have to do is look at the built environment; it’s kind of franchises and flotsam and jetsam of buildings. It’s not been carefully considered.”
High design has the potential to improve daily life, Blackwell says. “It doesn’t have to be a museum; it could be a car port, a free health clinic, it could be anything,” he says. “We think that all building types are deserving of architecture in the fullest sense of the word. We’re not just into building shelter or making buildings, we’re interested in how architecture can elevate people’s lives.It makes a difference in people’s lives, it enriches, it dignifies.”
Researching Design
Many of Blackwell’s projects are as much about research as they are about place and function. The southern architect pursues his passion for, as he puts it, “high design in unexpected places,” at his private practice and through his role as Fay Jones distinguished professor at Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He came to the university and began living in Arkansas in the 1990s after completing his degree at Auburn University in Auburn, Ala., working in Boston and Louisiana, and studying at Syracuse University in Florence, Italy.
In one exercise, Blackwell and his students hammered, perforated and applied chemicals to a variety of metal building products to research the reactions. “Really exploring the properties of the metals, and really loving metals that could reflect light well, or could respond to the atmosphere in different ways,” he says. “It’s a dynamic material.”
Blackwell’s research supports his commissions. He designed Blessings Golf Club’s clubhouse in Fayetteville with a brick base and barshaped mass clad with a copper standing seam panel system. “All of this comes from research of our own, how do you put copper together, copper construction,” Blackwell says.
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| Photo: Timothy Hursley |
Complementing Metal
The first building Blackwell designed in Arkansas was a barn house clad with box-rib metal panels. The material has reappeared on many of his projects including the church, Fayetteville High School and Fayetteville Montessori School. Blackwell designs the box-rib metal panel systems, which can have concealed or exposed fasteners, to create smooth and textured surfaces with other complementary materials. In one example, cypress wood was selected for porches on the Montessori school to complement the metal. “We love using the box-rib metal because it’s almost like corduroy,” Blackwell says.
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| Photo: Timothy Hursley |
Evolving Metal
Blackwell says metal’s ability to be configured in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, curves, angles and parametric surfaces
(curving in three directions) was demonstrated in the 1990s and 2000s by Frank Gehry and others. “I think it’s only going to continue to evolve,” he says. “What I see increasingly happening more is greater variety and development of finishes of the metals. I also see that it is no longer just a metal panel that is attached to something, it is in fact a metal system.” The metal panel systems have their own substructure, attachment systems and preinstalled components. “It’s more layered systems that metal’s a big part of,” he says.
Blackwell says his firm integrates metal systems with a high level of precision and craft in the way they are positioned on buildings. “The system becomes a framework, a way in which you understand everything else. The metal for me has always been a material that is at once both very practical and yet very expressive. It was a way for us to speak to what architecture is about, this idea of being durable, being well crafted and very beautiful.”
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| Photo: Richard Johnson |
Arch Connect
What type of music do you listen to? I love all types of music. What I mostly listen to on a daily basis is rock and roll and blues such as the Rolling Stones, Howlin’ Wolf, recently Blackstar by David Bowie and bands like Kings of Leon.
What do you do on weekends? Usually working, chilling with the family, a little bourbon, a cigar once in a while and maybe some Walking Dead.
Where is your favorite place to vacation? Mexico.
Which historical figure would you like to have dinner with and why? Hugh Glass: I want to know what really happened with that bear.
What is an important piece of advice you received as an architect? Know enough to know that you don’t know.