Níall McLaughlin
Architects

BISHOP EDWARD KING CHAPEL SHORTLISTED FOR RIAI GOLD MEDAL 2013-2015

DECEMBER 2024

Bishop Edward King Chapel was shortlisted for the RIAI Gold Medal 2013-2015. Presented by the RIAI since 1934, the Gold medal is the highest honour in Irish Architecture. 

The jury noted: 

This unique project for Ripon Theological College, developed over time from an initial design competition responds to the context of the existing 19th century college campus and surrounding trees and is also grounded in the wider South Oxfordshire landscape, overlooking the valley to the west.

The architect has created an exquisitely detailed nave type space for collegiate gathering, defined by the tracery of a Glulam structure and equipped with a perimeter ambulatory, side chapel and sacristy in which the control of space and light is exemplary.   

Through its refined architecture this chapel becomes truly a spiritual space, an ethereal place set apart in heart of English countryside, and capable of responding to the changing requirements of the College.

The RIAI Gold Medal 2013-2015 was awarded to Donaghy+Dimond Architects for The Model School, Inchicore.

A LIFETIME OF RENEWAL

JULY 2015

Niall McLaughlin has written an essay for the Architects Journal titled ‘A Lifetime of Renewal’.  He explains his view that ‘it should no longer be possible for an architect to finish their education.  I propose a more comprehensive model of life-long learning.  If practitioners return to education throughout their careers, they will be constantly invigorated and, by extension, so will the schools to which they return’.

Images show Episodes in a journey through the East Midlands Local Assembly in Leicester. A student project by Emily Doll at Unit 17 in the Bartlett.  Darbishire Place by Niall McLaughlin Architects and A School for Mothers with Children. St. Matthew’s Estate in Leicester. A student project by Joanne Chen at Unit 17 in the Bartlett.