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.

YALE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

JANUARY 2015

Niall gave a lecture at The School of Architecture at Yale University on the 22^nd of January. It is part of his role as Sir Norman Foster Visiting Chair for 2015. The talk was titled Origins and Translations and it described the thinking behind projects including Bishop Edward King Chapel, Auckland Castle Museum and the Athlete’s Housing for the 2012 Olympics in London. The talk coincided with the publication of an extended interview with Nina Rappenport in the spring issue of the Yale architecture magazine Constructs.