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Biennale Architecttura 2018

June 2018

Biennale Architecttura 2018

The 2018 Venice Biennale opened to the public on the 26th May. This year’s theme “focuses on architecture’s ability to provide free and additional spatial gifts to those who use it and on its ability to address the unspoken wishes of strangers”.

Our contribution is a collection of six large-scale models, each representing a hall for gathering that the practice has designed. These models are placed upon a rotating table which is a calendar and a cosmic machine. Each hall has a different purpose yet they all bring people together in a rhythmic and cyclical fashion daily, weekly and annually. The specific uses of each building are regulated by a calendar of events, rituals and times of congregation. Their calendars are inscribed on the outer rim of a turning table. The table can be rotated by hand. When you turn it, varying light falls upon the models representing the passage of the sun through the day from dawn to dusk. It is a manual and mechanical process.

The intention of presenting these models in this way is to emphasise the relationship between the enduring frames of the buildings and the endless procession of fugitive elements that pass through them periodically.

Competiton Win at King’s Cross

February 2013

Competiton Win at King’s Cross

‘Niall McLaughlin triumphs in King’s Cross canopy competition.’  Building Design

Niall McLaughlin Architects was announced as the winner of the Cubitt Square competition at King’s Cross. The practice was chosen from among a strong shortlist, including Amanda Levete Architects, Asif Khan, Duggan Morris, Carmody Groarke, Ian Ritchie and Jamie Fobert.

The competition brief was to create a canopy structure for the southern end of the square, to provide a covered space for public events. In response the practice’s intention was to create an object that will read beautifully against the dark brick of the train sheds, whilst echoing their inner structure. The canopy will be made from very slender rods of stainless steel that will form a fragile framework. The ephemeral nature of the structure will allow views between the the existing listed buildings and significant structures, such as the Triplet Gas Holders.