LECTURE AT THE AGE UK CONFERENCE
APRIL 2013
Niall McLaughlin was the invited speaker at the Age UK Conference entitled ‘Later Life: Better Health and Care in Tough Times”. The subject of the talk was the role of the architect in designing for dementia, focusing on insights gain from the design of the Alzheimer’s Respite Centre in Dublin, as well as the practice’s consultation work for the London Borough of Camden in their design for new residential care homes. The lecture also touched on broader themes of how we develop spatial understanding and language from birth and how this abstract awareness is affected with the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease.
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)