Parliament Buildings: The Architecture of Politics in Europe
March 2024
Yesterday Níall was one of the responders at the book launch of Parliament Buildings: The Architecture of Politics in Europe, edited by Sophia Psarra, Claudia Sternberg and Uta Staiger. Níall spoke alongside two other responders, Mari Takayanagi, Senior Archivist at the Parliamentary Archive, and Lord David Anderson of Ipswich, a Member of the House of Lords. Niall’s presentation was based on his model of the Palace of Westminster for the Alternative Histories exhibition in 2020. The film of Alterntaive Histories can be viewed here.
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.