The Bartlett School of Architecture prepared a series of folios to showcase research work by its own staff. Niall took part by producing work on three projects, the Block N14 façade, Olympic Village, Stratford, the Alzheimer’s Respite Centre, Dublin, and the Bishop Edward Chapel, Oxford. All of the portfolios can be downloaded via the following link
Niall McLaughlin has written a piece for the RIBA Journal on the symbolic use of architecture within early Renaissance Art. The essay describes observations based on a visit to the ‘Building the Picture’ exhibition, currently on show at the National Gallery in London. The exhibition gathers together architectonic works by the Italian masters of the 14th-16th centuries that explore real and imagined architectural space.
The article observes how the Renaissance artists’ enthusiasms for displaying their newly discovered skills of perspective and knowledge of the classical forms are conflated with a religious symbolism. The tropes of classical architecture are used as visual metaphors for the divine and eternal. The article explores the effect of these spaces on the viewer and the reasons why the idealised architecture tends to alienate rather than engage.