Níall McLaughlin
Architects

‘ETERNAL PROBLEMS’, RIBA JOURNAL EXHIBITION REVIEW BY NIALL MCLAUGHLIN

JUNE 2014

Niall McLaughlin has written a piece for the RIBA Journal on the symbolic use of architecture within early Renaissance Art. The essay describes observations based on a visit to the ‘Building the Picture’ exhibition, currently on show at the National Gallery in London. The exhibition gathers together architectonic works by the Italian masters of the 14th-16th centuries that explore real and imagined architectural space.

The article observes how the Renaissance artists’ enthusiasms for displaying their newly discovered skills of perspective and knowledge of the classical forms are conflated with a religious symbolism. The tropes of classical architecture are used as visual metaphors for the divine and eternal. The article explores the effect of these spaces on the viewer and the reasons why the idealised architecture tends to alienate rather than engage.

STIRLING PRIZE SHORTLIST MEDIA COVERAGE

SEPTEMBER 2013

In a conversation on BBC Radio 4‘s Front Row, journalist and broadcaster Tom Dyckhoff has described this year’s Stirling Prize shortlist as representing “a completely new outlook on architecture…the voice of a new generation.”  Together with architect and chair of the judges Philip Gumunchidan, the two critics reflected on what the shortlist says about the state of British architecture and the growing appetite for commissioning innovative contemporary buildings. During the broadcast, Front Row’s John Wilson described the chapel as an “absolutely stunningly beautiful” geometric structure.

To listen to the conversation in full visit:

Link to the BBC Radio 4

For other media coverage on the Bishop Edward King Chapel’s shortlisting for the Stirling Prize visit:

Link to BBC News
Link to the Evening Standard 
Link to the The Guardian