FAST TALKS CONFERENCE
OCTOBER 2024
Niall will be keynote speaking at the TALKS conference series at FAST 2024 in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
FAST Festival for Architecture Schools of Tomorrow is being held between 30th October and November 3rd. The TALKS conference series aims to explore the intersections between professional practice and academic inquiry under the theme “Diversecity.” FAST 2024 is organised by the Romanian Order of Architects (OAR) and features speakers from around the world.
Niall wil be speaking at 18:00 on 01.11.2024 at the Cluj-Napoca National Opera.
Further information about the event is available here.
A SITE FOR SAURIIS
JANUARY 2017
Our proposal to redevelop the grounds of the Natural History Museum is due to start on site this month. The work to the main entrance – the first of three phases – will introduce level access to this area for the first time while also restoring the Grade-I listed fabric to its former glory.
The works include changing levels, repaving the forecourt, restoring railings, installing planting, and repairing or reinstating original terracotta details across the site.
Ahead of this, the main entrance and central hall of the Museum are now closed while both teams gear up for construction – including some unusual enabling works. As part of these works Dippy the diplodocus has now been dismantled ahead of going on tour around the country; to be eventually recast in bronze for the next phase of our project.
The railings have now been removed for off-site restoration and re-painting:
And scaffolding is also going up for the removal of display cases and various specimens:
This will need to go up again halfway through construction of Phase 1 allow for delivery of the blue whale skull through our active site. Here it is just before it left the Museum.
If you’re wondering how that that will fit through the front doors, the answer’s simple: the same way the elephants do.
Phase 1 is due to complete mid-July ahead of the main entrance reopening to the public shortly after. In the meantime, there’s a pop-up conservation studio in the Darwin Centre – which we highly recommend – where you can see the conservationists at work restoring the whale’s bones.