THE WELCOME BUILDING
SEPTEMBER 2017
The Welcome Building in Bishop Auckland consists of a new viewing tower and central ticketing hall for the The Auckland Project. It acts as an access point and gateway to the wider site whilst also giving views over the town and landscape setting. The tower – a timber framed structure – is now well under way on site.
The building team has worked tirelessly and with the highest level of precision, to build the in-situ concrete lift shaft. Working from the ground up seemed to take an age.
Meanwhile, the enormous larch glulam beams have been carefully crafted and manually grey-oiled in the joiner’s workshop.
The frames are now being lifted into position on site and suddenly the building can be seen. Almost in an instant. As if the past four years had happened in the blink of an eye.
We are so excited and proud – even – to see this fantasy project becoming real at last. But with completion on the horizon, time seems to now move all too fast.
CHARLES JENCKS AWARD
SEPTEMBER 2016
Niall has been announced as winner of the Charles Jencks Award 2016, which is given annually to an outstanding architect or practice that ‘has recently made a major contribution to both the theory and practice of architecture’.
Explaining the judges’ choice, RIBA President Jane Duncan said: ‘Niall’s body of work exemplifies the spirit of this award, which recognises the ability to seamlessly, and, in this case, beautifully, build theory into one’s practice. I am in awe of the materiality and the craftsmanship, of the dedication, the collaborative relationships and the contextual sensitivity with which Niall’s buildings are created.’
According to Charles Jencks, Niall ‘is a great inspiration for architects today, especially the young, because of his masterful skill in drawing from all traditions – Classicism, Modernism, Postmodernism. All the ‘isms’ are under his belt, not on his back, and he extends them all through the commitment to architecture as an art and professional practice’
Previous winners of the award include Herzog & de Meuron, Benedetta Tagliabue, Rem Koolhaas, Stephen Holl and Zaha Hadid.
Niall will receive the award at a public lecture, chaired by Charles Jencks, at RIBA on 25th October.