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KEY NOTE LECTURE AT CONFERENCE ON MODERN SACRED ARCHITECTURE

OCTOBER 2014

Niall McLaughlin has given a keynote lecture on the theme of ‘Sacred Spaces’ as part of a conference on Modern Sacred Architecture in Ireland and Germany, hosted at Newman House in Dublin. The conference was hosted as a collaboration between University College Dublin, Goethe-Institut Ireland and the National College of Art and Design. The other key note lecturers were Kathleen James-Chakraborty, Professor of Art History at UCD and Amandus Sattler, principal of the award-wining Munich practice, Allmann Sattler Wappner.

The three day event explored themes of abstraction and innovation, together with conservation and re-use in the design of churches, mosques and synagogues from 1920s to the present day. The lectures and panel discussions focussed on sacred architecture of the period within Ireland and Germany. Niall spoke on themes surrounding the practice’s ecclesiastical work, including the Bishop Edward King Chapel and the Carmelite chapels in London and Dublin.

NIALL MCLAUGHLIN GIVES ROYAL GOLD MEDAL SPEECH FOR HERMAN HERTZBERGER

FEBRUARY 2012

Niall McLaughlin nominated Herman Hertzberger as the recipient of the 2012 Royal Gold Medal. At the award ceremony in London this month Niall delivered the formal citation for Herman Hertzberger on behalf of the honours committee.

“For Hertzberger inhabitation is the key….architects should be specialists in the daily life of people. This is done not by asking people what they want but by undertaking a rational observation of what they are.”

Link to the full recording of the speech