GOLD AWARD WINNER AT WOOD AWARDS 2013
NOVEMBER 2013
The Bishop Edward King Chapel has been named as the Gold Award winner at this year’s Wood Awards. The project was selected as overall winner from among over 300 entries and was also announced as the recipient of the prize for the structural category.
The chairman of the judges described the chapel as “a stunning and worthy Gold Award winner.” He went on to say that the project “…embodies the Wood Awards’ celebration of excellence in design and craftsmanship in wood, and even exceeds the hope that the building might be a ‘work of art that would touch the spirit’.”
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)