OXFORD INDIA CENTRE FOR SOMERVILLE COLLEGE
NOVEMBER 2013
Niall McLaughlin Architects are pleased to be continuing their work for Somerville College, Oxford with the design of the Oxford India Centre, which will house the Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development. The new building forms part of the redevelopment of the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter and is to be positioned at the north west corner of the College, adjacent to the new Blavatnik School of Government building designed by Herzog de Meuron. The design includes a theatre, exhibition and teaching space, new postgraduate accommodation, as well as a new archway entrance to the College.
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)