Níall McLaughlin
Architects

SOMERSET HOUSE COMPETITION WIN

JANUARY 2020

We are delighted to announce that Niall McLaughlin Architects has been appointed to design a new, multi-purpose auditorium and public space. This follows an international competition (organised by Colander Associates) which had a total of 69 entries from an impressive calibre of architectural teams. Eight teams were shortlisted which included Adjaye Associates, Barozzi/Veiga with DRDH, David Chipperfield Architects, Flores Prats with AOC Architects, Haworth Tompkins with Citizen’s Design Bureau, Snohetta with Orms, Studio Seilern, and Niall McLaughlin Architects. The jury, comprising Jonathan Reekie (Director, Somerset House Trust), Julia Barfield (Architect), Martine d’Anglejan Chatillon (Trustee and arts producer), Brian Eno (Trustee and artist/musician), Sarah Gaventa (Director of Illuminated River), Paul Goswell (Trustee and MD of Delancey) and Paul Purgas (Artist and Somerset House Studios resident), was unanimous that Niall McLaughlin Architects’ presentation gave a strong sense of design direction and clarity of thought, with an unmatched commitment to sustainability and a distinctly creative and collaborative approach. The jury felt confident that in our hands, the team would deliver Somerset House’s vision of creating a world-class performance space to make and showcase new, cutting-edge multi-disciplinary work to new, younger and more diverse audiences.

RIBA PRESIDENT’S MEDALS STUDENT AWARDS

DECEMBER 2013

Two members of the practice have won the main awards at this years RIBA President’s Medals Student Awards. The two medals were chosen from over 300 submissions, the best student work from 65 schools around the world.

Ben Hayes received the President’s Medal for his project entitled Kizhi Island, which proposes the restoration and reassembly of 250 wooden Orthodox churches on the small island in northern Russia. The proposal is for a curated museum landscape that incorporates the re-located ecclesiastical structures and an associated restoration and research facility.

Tamsin Hanke received the Dissertation Medal for her thesis, Magnitogorsk: Utopian Vision of Spatial Socialism. The work explored how the political ideology of the city was expressed spatially in the city during the years 1930 to 1953 and how the urban form has manifested in a social-economic legacy that remains to this day.

Ben and Tamsin studied with Niall and his teaching partners Yeoryia Manoloupoulou and Michiko Sumi in Unit 17 at the Bartlett School of Architecture in University College London. Tamsin’s Dissertation Supervisor was Sophia Psarra.