Niall McLaughlin took part in a live discussion evening at the RIBA, chaired by the Observer architecture critic Rowan Moore. The event brought together the six practices shortlisted for this year’s Stirling Prize, to reflect on their individual entries and to participate in a wider conversation about British architecture. The panel discussed the stories behind the projects and took questions from the audience.
A short film has been made about the practice and the design of the Tapestry Building, a large-scale mixed-use development on the edge of the Regent’s Canal in King’s Cross. The scheme forms one element in the wider regeneration of the 67-acre site adjacent to King’s Cross station and the Regent’s Canal.
In the film Niall McLaughlin describes the design influences behind the woven tapestry-like facade and places the building within a tradition of masonry buildings looking to imitate “the intensity and the enmeshed, thicket-like quality of tapestries” that goes back to the origins of architecture, where hanging tapestries were used to enclose space.