FAITH MUSEUM - GUBBIO PRIZE 2024
NOVEMBER 2024
The Auckland Castle, Tower and Faith Museum received an Honourable Mention in the European Category of the Gubbio Prize 2024.
The jury praised the project “For its capacity to enrich the village through a new configuration of public spaces and through the insertion of a sophisticated and bold contemporary architecture, which integrates harmoniously into the historical context without falling into mere mimicry”.
The Gubbio Prize is Italy's most prestigious award for projects undertaken within sensitive historic and heritage settings. The prize is awarded every three years by the National Association of Historic-Artistic Centers ANCSA.
The project was a collaboration between Niall McLaughlin Architects and Purcell. Associate Anne Schroell travelled to Gubbio to receive the award and present the project.
Further information about the event is available here.
AUCKLAND CASTLE WING EXTENSION
MAY 2019
Following the completion of the Auckland Tower, the Faith Museum is our second project at Auckland Castle and is an extension to the Grade I listed Scotland Wing. Unlike its vertical sister, which wears its expressed timber structure on the outside, the Faith Museum is singular and monolithic in its appearance, forming a continuous horizontal stone edge to an enclosed courtyard. Cop Crag sandstone, local to the north-east of England, is the external treatment for the roof, walls and weatherings of the building. Far from being homogenous, the stone is alive with natural variation which ranges from delicate lacy swirls to something resembling animal markings.
The principal internal space is a 9.5m tall gallery which follows the steeply pitching roof form, supported by a procession of closely-centred fine metal trusses. The Museum is largely inward-looking, borne of its intended purpose for contemplation and preservation of religious artefacts. This provides further enjoyable contrast and conversation between our two buildings in how they seem to view one another: the Tower’s expansive 360˚ views offering a full appreciation of the Faith Museum in its entirety as begins to take form, whilst the introspective Museum offers the only the slightest peek of its neighbour over the wall.
