SMALL PROJECTS AWARD
OCTOBER 2014
“Small projects allow you to do something singular and very memorable…..Through small projects you discover yourself.” NM
Niall McLaughlin joined Maria Smith, co-founder of Studio Weave, to discuss the merits and challenges of small building projects at the launch of the 2015 Small Projects Award. The award seeks to recognise the best architecture built for less than £250,000. This year’s event was chaired by Rory Olcayto, acting editor of the AJ and was held at the Building Centre in London.
‘ETERNAL PROBLEMS’, RIBA JOURNAL EXHIBITION REVIEW BY NIALL MCLAUGHLIN
JUNE 2014
Niall McLaughlin has written a piece for the RIBA Journal on the symbolic use of architecture within early Renaissance Art. The essay describes observations based on a visit to the ‘Building the Picture’ exhibition, currently on show at the National Gallery in London. The exhibition gathers together architectonic works by the Italian masters of the 14th-16th centuries that explore real and imagined architectural space.
The article observes how the Renaissance artists’ enthusiasms for displaying their newly discovered skills of perspective and knowledge of the classical forms are conflated with a religious symbolism. The tropes of classical architecture are used as visual metaphors for the divine and eternal. The article explores the effect of these spaces on the viewer and the reasons why the idealised architecture tends to alienate rather than engage.