BUILDING STORIES - 2022 RIBA
SEPTEMBER 2022
On the 21st September at London's RIBA and the 4th October at the Everyman Cinema in Leeds, the architects shortlisted for the 2022 RIBA Stirling Prize will reveal the stories behind their buildings, what inspires them, and what it would mean to win the UK’s most prestigious architecture prize.
The six shortlisted projects are:
- 100 Liverpool Street, Hopkins Architects
- Forth Valley College – Falkirk Campus, Reiach and Hall Architects
- Hackney New Primary School and 333 Kingsland Road, Henley Halebrown
- Orchard Gardens, Elephant Park, Panter Hudspith Architects
- Sands End Arts and Community Centre, Mæ Architects
- The New Library, Magdalene College, Niall McLaughlin Architects
The architects behind the six shortlisted buildings will give brief presentations, followed by a panel discussion and a live Q&A with the audience. Talking on behalf of our pratice to present the New Library, Magdalene College will be Claire McMenamin and Tim Allen-Booth. You can watch the RIBA London event here.
NMLA SWIM THE SERPENTINE
SEPTEMBER 2018
On Saturday, a group of current and former NMLA staff, friends and partners swam a mile in the Serpentine as part of the weekend’s open water swimming festival in Hyde Park.
Following a summer of sun-drenched sea and river swims, it was pouring with rain as we made our way through crowds of bemused tourists and displaced geese to the start. It felt distinctly autumnal as we lined up on the edge of the Serpentine in our wetsuits and matching hats to a motivational soundtrack featuring Ricky Martin. After a civilised scrummage at the start, everyone settled into a rhythm for the mile-long lap in the murky greenish-grey water. We circumnavigated Christo’s vast London Mastaba, a stack of 7,506 brightly coloured barrels floating in the centre of the lake, and agreed that our frog’s-eye views of it lent a new appreciation of the piece. As we rounded the final marker buoy and then clambered up the precarious exit ramp, we emerged grinning, enjoying the familiar and addictive endorphin buzz from pushing through the chilly water. A bottle of fizz was opened and shared, and we splashed damply off to the pub to warm up and relive the summer’s swimming exploits.
For anyone considering a discovery of swimming outside (even vicariously!), we would thoroughly recommend Roger Deakin’s wonderful book Waterlog, which tracks a year of swimming in the wild across the UK and has by now inspired thousands of subversive sea, river and lake swims.