The Economy of an Idea | University Design Forum Conference Belfast

The Economy of an Idea

The keynote at this year’s University Design Forum conference in Belfast was given by Ian McKnight of Hall McKnight, an ambitious practice with a quietly exceptional body of work. He didn’t present university buildings — his live projects are cultural, civic, mixed-use — but the room was full of people who commission and design for universities, and his argument landed precisely because of that distance.

His proposition was that “more from less” isn’t just about budget or carbon. It’s about the discipline of the architectural idea. The best buildings are made from few, clear and precise ideas — well resolved.

Complexity, more often than we admit, is a failure of editing rather than a richness of intent. And — the line that stayed with me — “don’t put all your ideas into one building. Hold some back for the next one”.

That afternoon we toured the Queen's University Belfast’s University Business School Student Hub, designed by TODD Architects - led by Jonathan Thompson. It sits adjacent to the listed Riddel Hall in south Belfast, embedded in mature woodland, and it is a building that follows a clear idea through into the detail. The material palette is confidently restrained — brick and red pre-cast echoing the listed neighbour, bronze-framed glazing, board-marked concrete internally. The section follows the landform, the plan resolves from a single movement diagram, around the courtyard, the atrium connects vertically and horizontally with generosity. Nothing just for effect.

The temptation in an important commission is to respond with more: more moves, more materials, more gestures of significance. The Student Hub resists that. Its argument, its voice, is restraint.

McKnight spoke about operating as a small practice as a condition that enforces this economy. I know that’s true, running my own small practice. But it’s a disposition, not a scale. It can be cultivated anywhere.

Less as the product of more thought. Distillation. A clear idea, held under pressure. The building — and the practice — that knows what it is.

The first of three reflections on the conference by Rupert Cook, Partner and Trustee of University Design Forum.