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.
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)