RIBA FORUM POETRY AND ARCHITECTURE
MAY 2015
On the 26th of May Niall joined architect Will Alsop, and poets Katharine Kilalea and Matthew Gregory at the RIBA for a discussion on whether poetry and architecture can together reveal something new about our contemporary experience of space. How do the two art forms inform each other, and what can poetry and architecture and their intersection tell us about modern habits and habitation? The event was curated by Catherine Hamilton from the arts association Store. Niall’s piece ‘My Portfolio in Poems’ looked at particular poems that directly influenced his projects.
A+U FEATURE ON SOMERVILLE COLLEGE ACCOMMODATION
MAY 2014
The Japanese journal a+u has published an account of the practice’s student accommodation for Somerville College, Oxford. The theme of this month’s publication is ‘New Landscapes of Wooden Architecture’ and features an international selection of projects that explore new aspects of wood technology and its potential within cities. The article gives a description on the themes and processes behind the project, placing it within the context of the historic university city and the surrounding Radcliffe Infirmary Quarter.
It is illustrated with working details of the bespoke timber glazing for the stair tower lanterns, as well as the prefabricated timber projecting bay window units for the student bedrooms, with their integral desk and bench seat overlooking the street.
‘We chose to make the glazed elements in the stair towers and student rooms in wood because we wanted them to be like warm lanterns, internally lit in the evening, bringing light to the narrow street…Wood allowed us to make more three-dimensional details…we owe a debt to Louis Kahn’s work at Philip Exeter Academy Library.’ NM