JERSEY RIBA DELEGATION AND STIRLING PRIZE SHORTLIST EVENT
SEPTEMBER 2015
On Friday the 18th of September Niall attended an event in Jersey alongside all the other Stirling Shortlisted architects to participate in a unique RIBA Delegation day at the Radisson Hotel, as part of the 2015 Jersey Architecture Biennale (JAB15) celebrations in September. Curated by RIBA President 2014-15, Stephen Hodder, the Stirling Award Day on September 18th was a first for Jersey, including personal presentations from the architects shortlisted for the 2015 Stirling Award, a film screening about James Stirling, the pioneering and celebrated modern architect, and accompanying talk about the history of the Stirling Prize.
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)