ARGENT KINGS CROSS FILM
MAY 2013
A short film has been made about the practice and the design of the Tapestry Building, a large-scale mixed-use development on the edge of the Regent’s Canal in King’s Cross. The scheme forms one element in the wider regeneration of the 67-acre site adjacent to King’s Cross station and the Regent’s Canal.
In the film Niall McLaughlin describes the design influences behind the woven tapestry-like facade and places the building within a tradition of masonry buildings looking to imitate “the intensity and the enmeshed, thicket-like quality of tapestries” that goes back to the origins of architecture, where hanging tapestries were used to enclose space.
Link to Kings Cross film
ST. CROSS COLLEGE COMPETITION WIN
NOVEMBER 2012
Niall McLaughlin Architects will continue their work for Oxford University, having been announced as the winners of the competition to complete the West Quadrangle of St. Cross College.
The brief asked for a scheme that would provide ‘In whole and in detail…continuing satisfaction and unexpected moments of delight.’ Sir Mark Jones, master of St. Cross College stated, ‘It was felt that Niall McLaughlin was the designer who would best meet the needs of the College.’
In an interview for Building Design, Niall McLaughlin commented, ‘St Cross is an Oxford college with a special atmosphere based on a community that is very democratic and informal. It enjoys a lovely situation, tucked behind a busy thoroughfare on a site of significance for the history of the city. The competition process was collaborative and inclusive so we already share a good mutual understanding with the client. We are delighted to have won, particularly given the strength of the shortlisted practices.’