COLLABORATION WITH KIM WILKIE MAKES NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM SHORTLIST
NOVEMBER 2013
Niall McLaughlin Architects and Kim Wilkie have been shortlisted in a competition to re-imagine the grounds of the Natural History Museum in London. The practice was approached by the landscape designer Kim Wilkie to collaborate on a scheme for the invited competition. The brief is to create an innovative exterior setting that matches the architectural excellence of Waterhouse’s iconic 19th century building.
The five other architect and landscape architect teams shortlisted for the competition are Bjarke Ingels Group with Martha Schwartz Partners, Grant Associates with Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Land Use Consultants with Design Engine and Stanton Williams Architects with Bradley-Hole Schoenaich Landscape Architects.
ATHLETES OCCUPY OLYMPIC HOUSING
AUGUST 2012
In the run up to the London Olympics, the Athletes’ Village housing block N15, is now occupied with athletes’ preparing for the games. Niall McLaughlin Architects have designed the external skin of the housing block on a ‘chassis’ designed by Glen Howells. The facade samples fragments of the Elgin Marbles, scanned from the British Museum and converted into 3D pre-cast panels depicting galloping horses from the Parthenon Frieze.
Niall McLaughlin commented on the practice’s approach to the unusual commission in Building Design. ‘I was very interested in the principle of the facade being delaminated from the building’s core form. Usually it’s something one tries to swim against to retain a sense of ‘authenticity’, but here we decided to embrace it….I like the idea of setting Ruskin’s conception of the craftsman against the absolute Taylorism of the construction process. Through digital reproduction, these deracinated stones are now doubly lost.’ (Building Design 27.01.2012)