DESIGN WEST LECTURES
DECEMBER 2022
As part of the RIBA Stirling Prize success for The New Library, Magdalene College, lectures will be taking place organised by Design West in Exeter and Bristol on the 14th and 15th December. These will be given by project architect Claire Mcmenamin and Níall McLaughlin.
Design West is a centre of excellence for design & placemaking. Their mission is to inspire the public, politicians & professionals across the built environment to design, better, healthier, places to live, work & relax. Design West is the new name for The Architecture Centre & Creating Excellence.
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)