Níall McLaughlin
Architects

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM PROGRESS

MARCH 2017

Below are some from the Natural History Museum site showing the scaffold ‘tunnel’ going up at the Museum. This is the framework required to lift, manipulate, and move the blue whale skull into position in a few weeks.

Though the main hall has had a sperm whale in it before, this was only around 15m long. In contrast, the blue whale, the largest known animal to have ever existed, is about 30m long once assembled.

Unfortunately, due to the various extensions and alterations to the Museum over time, the skull can only come in via the front doors. And – much like a very large, very heavy, very valuable sofa – it’s a case of squeezing it in at strange angles.

OXFORD INDIA CENTRE FOR SOMERVILLE COLLEGE

NOVEMBER 2013

Niall McLaughlin Architects are pleased to be continuing their work for Somerville College, Oxford with the design of the Oxford India Centre, which will house the Indira Gandhi Centre for Sustainable Development. The new building forms part of the redevelopment of the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter and is to be positioned at the north west corner of the College, adjacent to the new Blavatnik School of Government building designed by Herzog de Meuron. The design includes a theatre, exhibition and teaching space, new postgraduate accommodation, as well as a new archway entrance to the College.