< Back to News

NIALL MCLAUGHLIN RECEIVES AN HONORARY ROYAL DESIGNER FOR INDUSTRY AWARD

DECEMBER 2015

The title ‘Royal Designer for Industry’ is awarded annually by the Royal Society of Arts to designers of all disciplines who have achieved ‘sustained design excellence, work of aesthetic value and significant benefit to society’. The RDI is the highest accolade for designers in the UK; only 200 designers can hold the title and non-UK designers may receive the honorary title Hon RDI.

This year there were 8 RDI’s awarded. Alongside Niall McLaughlin were Ronan Bouroullec and Erwan Bouroullec who both also received an Hon RDI for their progressive and influential work across products, furniture and public spaces and impact on contemporary design culture, Michael Anastassiades RDI for his excellence and innovation in lighting design and supporting young designers, manufacturing and making in the UK, Kate Blee RDI for contributing her outstanding expertise in textiles to social investment projects and therapeutic public spaces, Kim Colin RDI for her sustained excellence in product design and applying design thinking to create thriving and sustainable enterprises, Karen Nicol RDI for pushing new boundaries in fabric and stitch design, promoting recycled textiles and designing for Fine Cell Work that teaches creative needlework to prisoners and David Pearson RDI for his distinctive and innovative contribution to British publishing and commitment to design education.

The Royal Society of Art’s Chief Executive Matthew Taylor commented ‘The RSA is committed to encouraging and rewarding outstanding designers who challenge convention, discover new insights, and improve our quality of life. These eight leading practitioners are from wide-ranging disciplines and are united by a driving commitment to innovate, create, educate and inspire others through design’.

Current architects with the title of Royal Designer of Industry are; David Chipperfield, Peter Clegg, Edward Cullinan, Norman Foster, Eva Jiricna, John Pawson, Alan Stanton, Sarah Wigglesworth, and Paul Williams.

Current architects with the title of Honorary Royal Designers are; Mario Bellini, Andrea Branzi, Antonio Citterio, and Peter Zumthor.

RIBA STIRLING PRIZE SHORTLIST

JUNE 2015

RIBA Stirling Prize Shortlist

Niall McLaughlin Architects are thrilled that Darbishire Place, Whitechapel Peabody Housing has been shortlisted for this year’s Stirling Prize.

Writing about Darbishire Place in a piece written for the Guardian, Olivier Wainwright said ” Filling in the gap of a second world war bomb site, the building follows the sobriety of Darbishire’s designs for “cheap, cleanly, well drained and healthful dwellings for the poor”, but updates it with generous internal spaces and sharply-crafted details that make it as near to a model housing scheme as you could find”.

The RIBA President Stephen Hodder, says: “The shortlisted projects are each surprising new additions to urban locations – hemmed into a hospital car park, in-filling an east London square, completing a school campus. But their stand-out common quality is their exceptionally executed crafted detail.”

The other 5 buildings making this years shortlist are Burntwood School in Wandsworth, designed by Allford Hall Monaghan Morris; the Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre in Lanarkshire, by Reiach and Hall; the NEO Bankside luxury apartments in Southwark, Rogers Stirk Harbour; the Library and Teaching Building at the University of Greenwich, by Heneghan Peng; and the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, by MUMA.