50 ARCHITECTS, 50 BUILDINGS
SEPTEMBER 2016
‘Certain buildings have an extraordinary vividness, a sense of being more intense than others. That special presence is renewed every time I see the Berkeley Library’ – Niall
To mark the publication of the 20th Century Society’s publication of their new book, ’50 Architects, 50 Buildings’, Niall will be speaking at RIBA on 27th September about a building which has inspired him and made a lasting impact on his work: the Berkeley Library at Trinity College Dublin, by ABK.
Peter Barber, Sarah Featherstone, and Cany Ash will also speak about buildings that they regard as critically influential to their work.
NAZRIN SHAH BUILDING – STEELWORK
JULY 2015
Just over two years since our first tentative steps towards imagining what sort of space a new auditorium for Worcester College might possibly be like, we find ourselves enclosed within a spidery sketch, looking up to the trees through a skeletal enclosure of steel. We watched in excitement as our drawings were scribed across the site, first in neon spray paint and little red sticks, later excavated into deep ravines. We pick our way across the lines that had become so familiar on paper and are now concrete obstacles in a muddy field. The reality of this transition only became real as we stood looking across at the steel columns in this picture. They map out the positions of the stone fins that radiate around the curved facade of the new auditorium, with the sloping beams above us silhouetted against the bright July sky marking the future locations of the sculpted folds to the soffit.