ARCHITECTS’ JOURNAL FEATURE ON DUNCAN TERRACE
AUGUST 2014
In their August issue entitled ‘Home’, the Architects’ Journal has featured an article on the practice’s remodelling of Duncan Terrace, a Grade II-listed Georgian house in Islington. After winning a private competition held by the clients in 1999, the residential project has spanned over a decade and is now complete. The internal arrangement of the house has been extensively remodelled and a dedicated gallery space built at the end of the courtyard garden, to house the clients’ collection of contemporary art and ceramics.
The main house is linked to the gallery space through a double-height passageway, formed between the existing listed flanking garden wall and a new screen of cast plaster blocks, set behind translucent glass. The screen gathers light from both sides making the cast volumes appear to float, with light able to penetrate around each block held in the array.
To read the full article click here.
ATHLETES OCCUPY OLYMPIC HOUSING
AUGUST 2012
In the run up to the London Olympics, the Athletes’ Village housing block N15, is now occupied with athletes’ preparing for the games. Niall McLaughlin Architects have designed the external skin of the housing block on a ‘chassis’ designed by Glen Howells. The facade samples fragments of the Elgin Marbles, scanned from the British Museum and converted into 3D pre-cast panels depicting galloping horses from the Parthenon Frieze.
Niall McLaughlin commented on the practice’s approach to the unusual commission in Building Design. ‘I was very interested in the principle of the facade being delaminated from the building’s core form. Usually it’s something one tries to swim against to retain a sense of ‘authenticity’, but here we decided to embrace it….I like the idea of setting Ruskin’s conception of the craftsman against the absolute Taylorism of the construction process. Through digital reproduction, these deracinated stones are now doubly lost.’ (Building Design 27.01.2012)