Níall lecture in Rome
November 2025
On the 7th November Níall will present a lecture in Rome entitled my Portfolio in Poems, as part of the conference Architecture and the Literary Imagination, organized by the American University of Rome and curated by Fabio Barry and Paul Gwynne.
The event, open to the entire DARC community, will be introduced by Maddalena Scimemi and is part of the program of courses in History of Contemporary Architecture for the Master of Science in Architectural Design, which for the occasion will be broadcast on unified channels (Channel I and Channel II). Link to the website can be found here.
A Site for Sauriis
January 2017
Our proposal to redevelop the grounds of the Natural History Museum is due to start on site this month. The work to the main entrance – the first of three phases – will introduce level access to this area for the first time while also restoring the Grade-I listed fabric to its former glory.
The works include changing levels, repaving the forecourt, restoring railings, installing planting, and repairing or reinstating original terracotta details across the site.
Ahead of this, the main entrance and central hall of the Museum are now closed while both teams gear up for construction – including some unusual enabling works. As part of these works Dippy the diplodocus has now been dismantled ahead of going on tour around the country; to be eventually recast in bronze for the next phase of our project.
The railings have now been removed for off-site restoration and re-painting:
And scaffolding is also going up for the removal of display cases and various specimens:
This will need to go up again halfway through construction of Phase 1 allow for delivery of the blue whale skull through our active site. Here it is just before it left the Museum.
If you’re wondering how that that will fit through the front doors, the answer’s simple: the same way the elephants do.
Phase 1 is due to complete mid-July ahead of the main entrance reopening to the public shortly after. In the meantime, there’s a pop-up conservation studio in the Darwin Centre – which we highly recommend – where you can see the conservationists at work restoring the whale’s bones.