RIBA STIRLING PRIZE SHORTLIST NOMINATION
JULY 2013
Niall McLaughlin Architects are delighted that the Bishop Edward King Chapel has been shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize for the best building, considered to be the most prestigious award for architectural excellence. The RIBA describe the shortlisted buildings as revealing, “the pinnacle of current architectural talent.”
The Chapel is one of the six on the shortlist which includes projects by Alison Brooks Architects, Hawkins\Brown, Witherford Watson Mann Architects, Heneghan Peng and Grafton Architects. The announcement has received widespread media coverage in shortlist that has been reported as “refreshing for its wave of new names.”
This year’s judging panel are Sheila O’Donnell (O’Donnell and Tuomey Architects), Paul Williams (Stanton Williams), Stephen Hodder (RIBA President Elect), Dame Vivien Duffield (philanthropist) and Tom Dykchoff (journalist). A short video of Niall McLaughlin talking with the judges about the Chapel building is featured below.
Link to Bishop Edward King Chapel Video
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)