Niall McLaughlin Receives an Honorary Royal Designer For Industry Award

NIALL MCLAUGHLIN RECEIVES AN HONORARY ROYAL DESIGNER FOR INDUSTRY AWARD

DECEMBER 2015

The title ‘Royal Designer for Industry’ is awarded annually by the Royal Society of Arts to designers of all disciplines who have achieved ‘sustained design excellence, work of aesthetic value and significant benefit to society’. The RDI is the highest accolade for designers in the UK; only 200 designers can hold the title and non-UK designers may receive the honorary title Hon RDI.

This year there were 8 RDI’s awarded. Alongside Niall McLaughlin were Ronan Bouroullec and Erwan Bouroullec who both also received an Hon RDI for their progressive and influential work across products, furniture and public spaces and impact on contemporary design culture, Michael Anastassiades RDI for his excellence and innovation in lighting design and supporting young designers, manufacturing and making in the UK, Kate Blee RDI for contributing her outstanding expertise in textiles to social investment projects and therapeutic public spaces, Kim Colin RDI for her sustained excellence in product design and applying design thinking to create thriving and sustainable enterprises, Karen Nicol RDI for pushing new boundaries in fabric and stitch design, promoting recycled textiles and designing for Fine Cell Work that teaches creative needlework to prisoners and David Pearson RDI for his distinctive and innovative contribution to British publishing and commitment to design education.

The Royal Society of Art’s Chief Executive Matthew Taylor commented ‘The RSA is committed to encouraging and rewarding outstanding designers who challenge convention, discover new insights, and improve our quality of life. These eight leading practitioners are from wide-ranging disciplines and are united by a driving commitment to innovate, create, educate and inspire others through design’.

Current architects with the title of Royal Designer of Industry are; David Chipperfield, Peter Clegg, Edward Cullinan, Norman Foster, Eva Jiricna, John Pawson, Alan Stanton, Sarah Wigglesworth, and Paul Williams.

Current architects with the title of Honorary Royal Designers are; Mario Bellini, Andrea Branzi, Antonio Citterio, and Peter Zumthor.

NIALL MCLAUGHLIN WRITES LA ARTICLE FOR ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW

SEPTEMBER 2013

Niall McLaughlin has written an article for the Architectural Review, entitled ‘Street Life: Michael Maltzan’s Social Housing in Los Angeles’. The piece examines the history of the infamous area of LA known as Skid Row and three housing projects by the practice Michael Maltzan Architecture for this fractured part of the city. The piece draws out common themes between the projects, which are all low-cost accommodation for the previously homeless, exploring the successful spatial relationships between the private space of the individual rooms, the areas of common sheltered space and the public realm of the street.

“The formal virtuosity of each composition is Maltzan’s own special skill and they suggest that high architecture can give pleasure and dignity to all of us….I hope that the different spatial experiments, linking and articulating pavement, common sheltered space and private rooms, will become subjects for further reflection and analysis. It speaks of our common need to situate ourselves and participate in public life.” NM