Níall McLaughlin to design College Chapel - Architects’ Journal
September 2009
Text Richard Waite
Images Níall McLaughlin Architects
Practice sees off rivals including Ushida Findlay and Terry Pawson with poetic proposal for chapel.
Níall McLaughlin Architects has won the RIBA competition to design a new college chapel in Oxfordshire, seeing off an impressive shortlist including Massimiliano Fuksas and Ushida Findlay Architects.
The practice also beat fellow finalists Terry Pawson Architects and Sarah Hare Architects to land the project for the ‘training’ chapel – part of a larger expansion programme at Ripon College, Cuddesdon. David Morley, the RIBA architectural adviser to the judging panel, described the winning proposals as ‘poetic’. He added, ‘The elliptical shape, with its two focal points on the altar and lectern, is a brilliantly simple, innovative response to the traditional college configuration for a chapel.’