Sunday, 14 May 2017




I am the Co-Founder of 


McCloy + Muchemwa an emerging design and architecture studio based in London. We have had our work widely published in print and online and have been recognised in the Architects' Journal 40 Under 40, received a Commendation at the Leeds Architecture Awards 2019, and were finalists in the AJ Small Projects awards 2022.

We are currently working on the design of a number of new build and retrofit houses in the UK and Africa, as well as with local councils, galleries and private developers.

We are very happy to receive expressions of interest from clients and collaborators no matter what size! 

I also sell copies of prints from the work on this website, please enquire by email.


+44 (0)7926359590

stevenjmccloy@gmail.com


Wednesday, 19 June 2013

European Union: The Gardens of Fantastica



European Union: The Gardens of Fantastica


“Concepts such as “far” and “near” are completely subjective, as are the times of the day and the seasons. Moreover, the latter are determined by different laws than in our own world: one may find a frozen polar landscape right next to a burning desert...visitors to Fantastica, whose traces the traveller may encounter {include}: Borges, Lewis, Magritte, Dali, Archimboldo and many others”
- Michael Ende’s Fantastica as described in The Dictionary of Imaginary Places, A. Manguel & G. Guadalupi


Blue

It was the suicide of Carlos Casagemas in Paris 1901, which sent Pablo Picasso into a deep depression; his paintings over the following four years were almost entirely blue. His ‘Blue Period’ is regarded as a pioneering achievement for symbolic use of colour to evoke sadness, sorrow and regret. Picasso is the most famous and prolific innovator in art history, pioneering styles from Collage and Cubism to Found Objects, Dada and Surrealism, all from his base in Paris.  

The Gardens of Fantastica is an imagined past that causes us to look back in regret at the development of the 20th century and parodies the seemingly surreal political, economic and infrastructural landscape of 21st century cities.

The project asks, what if the raison d’être of the European Union (EU) was food and energy security? An allegorical masterplan for Paris radically re-imagines the formation of the EU after World War II. Here the parliamentary headquarters moves every 5 years; spreading the influence of sustainable living and celebrating the special qualities of the host cities. An urban catalyst that deals with urban agriculture, renewable energy, clean water, and fresh air; Fantastica is revealed in the streets, tunnels, parks, skies and waterways of Paris, the capital of art and culture for the first term of the new EU.

Blueprints

Under a sky of regimented clouds the wide boulevards of Paris are relieved of motor traffic, community allotments pack out all but a modest cycle lane, the mechanical clouds work to irrigate the food boulevards whilst also providing accommodation for the hundreds of volunteers from all around Europe who have come to contribute to the EU cause. The beautiful panoramic views are the silver lining for all the hard work they do. A vast energy ring surrounds the city like a defensive wall, safeguarding against the threat of increasing energy demands.

On the Champ-de-Mars the Members of European Parliament (MEPs) are the keepers of Fantastican gardens and have a duty to the public to communicate the ambitions of the newly formed EU; they stay in communal accommodation hats, which double as storage archives. Biomass is delivered and along with food waste and sewerage it is fed into apple shaped digesters where bacteria break down the material into methane biogas, this collects in inflatable leaves on top of the apples, which act as shading canopies for seating in the maze above. The methane is stored in gasometer mountains, and are each decaled with a national flag of an EU member state. The mountains double as pigeon towers used to collect tons of droppings for the anaerobic digesters. A vast chemistry set cleans the biogas before it is burned in combined heat and power generators, condensers then separate out polluting carbon dioxide from the emissions and re-direct it to intensive greenhouses.


An underground reservoir purifies river water and forms a protective moat around the base of the Eiffel Tower which is transformed into the parliamentary headquarters; a hanging food curtain veils the 300m structure and attenuates the internal microclimate, it is drawn back ceremonially as the MEPs assemble in umbrella boats. The river seine is bridged from the Champ-de-Mars to Trocadero by a frozen layer; the by-product of water source heat pumps. An artificial sky is painted on the underside of a canopy of water collecting umbrellas, which captures and controls rain in the evening apple orchard.

Saturday, 13 April 2013

The Persistence of Topiary


Steven McCloy (after Dali), The Persistence of Topiary, Acrylic on canvas, 2013.

Eiffel Adjustments



Environmental control living curtains for the Eiffel Tower - shading, air purification, temperature stabilization, and water heating; They are drawn open for a celebration of the Parliamentary Event.

Souvenir from 1889 Paris Expo and Souvenir from the re-imagined 1946 scenario.

Monday, 22 August 2011

RIBA Yearbook 2011



My image was selected for the front cover of the RIBA Education Yearbook 2011, By John-Paul Nunes, Published by the RIBA.

The book features work from the Presidents Medals, regional awards, and scholarships. And is available from RIBA Bookshops.

Friday, 17 June 2011

BBC 2


The model for Perruqueria Barcelona appeared for almost two seconds on BBC 2's Culture Show, the one hour special was about the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2011 in which I was lucky enough to be included along with my heroes from the world of art and architecture - http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b011wnkv/The_Culture_Show_The_Royal_Academy_Summer_Exhibition_2011_A_Culture_Show_Special/

Saturday, 11 June 2011

Shortlised in RIBA Competition

Full Page in AJ 08.09.11
Big Picture in AJ 16.06.11



Steven McCloy and Bongani Muchemwa have managed to sneak another rather "Shift-E" design proposal into a RIBA shortlist (Forgotten Spaces 2011), exhibition and mention in Architect's Journal(16-06-11)- not bad for a couple of afternoons on SketchUp!

"The derelict yet beautiful Old Post Office is retrofitted with a huge, high-tech atrium canopy, which provides a central public space to the Sheffield Department of Media, Fabrication and Robotics. The aim is to generate 21st century sustainable jobs for the city's unemployed"

I am the Co-Founder of  McCloy + Muchemwa an emerging design and architecture studio based in London. We have had our work widely published ...