Messums Wiltshire Talk
September 2020
On the 12th September Niall will be part of a panel discussion alongside Peter Clegg, Piers Taylor and Jenny Jones. Chaired by Kate Goodwin ‘A Place Together’ will examine the future of the city centre and high rise architecture; airports and theme parks.
The discussion takes Elisabeth Frink’s reconstructed Woolland Studio – and her creative environment as the backdrop. A Place Apart (starts 10:30am) and A Place Together (starts 2pm), which recall Frink’s statement about her studio and solitary practice and a contrasting talk about how collective spaces need to be reimagined and how architecture is adapting to a post Covid-19 society.
Tickets can be purchased here.
a+u Feature on Somerville College Accommodation
May 2014
The Japanese journal a+u has published an account of the practice’s student accommodation for Somerville College, Oxford. The theme of this month’s publication is ‘New Landscapes of Wooden Architecture’ and features an international selection of projects that explore new aspects of wood technology and its potential within cities. The article gives a description on the themes and processes behind the project, placing it within the context of the historic university city and the surrounding Radcliffe Infirmary Quarter.
It is illustrated with working details of the bespoke timber glazing for the stair tower lanterns, as well as the prefabricated timber projecting bay window units for the student bedrooms, with their integral desk and bench seat overlooking the street.
‘We chose to make the glazed elements in the stair towers and student rooms in wood because we wanted them to be like warm lanterns, internally lit in the evening, bringing light to the narrow street…Wood allowed us to make more three-dimensional details…we owe a debt to Louis Kahn’s work at Philip Exeter Academy Library.’ NM