Níall McLaughlin Receives 2026 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture

January 2026

Established in 1990, Níall McLaughlin Architects is a London-based practice designing buildings for education, culture, faith, care, and housing, all grounded in an approach that sees architecture as learning, craft, and ritual that endures through human engagement and collective use.

Acknowledging the award Níall said ‘Architecture is a patient and ethical act, one that unfolds through care for people, places, and institutions, over time. To receive the Royal Gold Medal from a jury so deeply engaged in education, culture, and civic life is an honour that affirms these values. It encourages us to continue working with the same attentiveness, restraint, and responsibility that have shaped our practice from the beginning.’

RIBA President and Chair of the 2026 RIBA Honours Jury, Chris Williamson, said: “Always one to credit and uplift those around him, it is fitting that Níall is recognised for the resounding impact he has had on the profession. As an educator, he has been an outstanding role model for young architects, while his designs - eclectic in appearance and use - share a sense of care and grace that represent the very best of architecture.

Such sustained success has in no way diminished his humility. A humble visionary, his dedication to architecture as an art and professional practice has left an enduring mark on the discipline – one that will undoubtedly transcend trends and time.”

The 2026 RIBA Honours Jury was chaired by RIBA President Chris Williamson and comprised of 2025 Royal Gold Medal recipient Kazuyo Sejima of SANAA, Anna Liu of Tonkin Liu, Isabel Allen, Editor, Architecture Today and Victoria Farrow, Architect and Subject Lead in Architecture and the Built Environment at Leicester School of Architecture, De Montfort University.

The Guardian on the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

June 2022

Olly Wainwright has published his Guardian review of this year’s Royal Academy architecture rooms which have been co-curated by Níall McLaughlin and artist Rana Begum. With this year’s theme being ‘Climate’, Wainwright highlights that “Architects and engineers have, after all, some responsibility for the mess we’re in, given that 40% of carbon emissions come from buildings. They also have the means to do something about it”. Níall commented, “there can be a sense of fatalism about the climate, but our discipline can show that imaginative change is possible”.

The article reviews a few select pieces such as Stonemasonry Company and Webb Yates engineers’ large stone beam titled ‘Equanimity’, the Khudi Bari (or Tiny House), a modular monsoon-resistant shelter designed by Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum, and Thai architect Boonserm Premthada’s ‘Dung Power’ a structure made from elephant dung bricks.

The article can be accessed here.