Níall McLaughlin
Architects

Alternative Histories

November 2020

Acknowledging that architecture is a corpus of inherited ideas, Alternative Histories invited more than 80 contemporary practices in the UK and Europe to imagine an exchange with architects from the past. Each office was assigned a different drawing from the collection of Drawing Matter. The architects were then tasked with making a model that not only responded to what they saw, but envisioned an alternative future for the original drawing while adhering to the constraints of the project

Our practice was given Basil Spence’s sketch for the enlargement of the Houses of Parliament. To view our response to this project please visit the Drawing Matter website here.

Niall McLaughlin Gives Royal Gold Medal Speech for Herman Hertzberger

February 2012

Niall McLaughlin nominated Herman Hertzberger as the recipient of the 2012 Royal Gold Medal. At the award ceremony in London this month Niall delivered the formal citation for Herman Hertzberger on behalf of the honours committee.

“For Hertzberger inhabitation is the key….architects should be specialists in the daily life of people. This is done not by asking people what they want but by undertaking a rational observation of what they are.”

Link to the full recording of the speech