STIRLING STORIES
AUGUST 2018
Following the exciting announcement of our inclusion on this year’s Stirling Prize Shortlist for our Sultan Nazrin Shah Centre in Oxford, Niall will be taking part in the RIBA’s Stirling Stories. The talks take place on the 11th September at London’s RIBA on Portland Place and on the 27th September at York’s Everyman Cinema. The shortlist consists of six buildings and these events provide an opportunity for the architects to present and discuss the unique stories behind their projects.
BALLIOL FACADE TRIP
APRIL 2017
We are working on new student residential buildings for Balliol College, Oxford. As part of the detailed design development we have been working with a façade sub-contractor based in Belgium, and recently made a visit to their manufacturing factories. The itinerary for the day – a design workshop, a factory tour and a review of samples. Lots of coffee after an early Eurostar, and a good lunch.
There had been several similar design workshops before; where gathered around the meeting table, sketches were scattered as we questioned the architectural intent and the construction details equally. Brick samples sat in front of us, books piled up with precedents opened, past project drawings and models pulled out for reference. How to compose the language to create a calm and unified façade across the site. The engineers, the architects, the craftsmen who will build the façade.
These sorts of discussion are an aspect of everyday practice, and incredibly valuable part of the process – marrying the conversations of design aspiration with the actual making of. The bricks and mortar that see the architecture delivered from the paper to the physical form.