TAPESTRY BUILDING PROGRESS
MARCH 2015
Looking south from the roof garden, the view is framed by the ‘beak’ of the building looking south over Regents Canal and out towards the BT tower.
The concrete frame of the Tapestry (T1) building is approaching completion, with just two more floors to be constructed. This space on the 8th floor will become an outdoor roof garden enclosed either side by two level ‘townhouses’ and a tower to the north. The area will be open to residents and landscaped with trees and gardens.
ATHLETES OCCUPY OLYMPIC HOUSING
AUGUST 2012
In the run up to the London Olympics, the Athletes’ Village housing block N15, is now occupied with athletes’ preparing for the games. Niall McLaughlin Architects have designed the external skin of the housing block on a ‘chassis’ designed by Glen Howells. The facade samples fragments of the Elgin Marbles, scanned from the British Museum and converted into 3D pre-cast panels depicting galloping horses from the Parthenon Frieze.
Niall McLaughlin commented on the practice’s approach to the unusual commission in Building Design. ‘I was very interested in the principle of the facade being delaminated from the building’s core form. Usually it’s something one tries to swim against to retain a sense of ‘authenticity’, but here we decided to embrace it….I like the idea of setting Ruskin’s conception of the craftsman against the absolute Taylorism of the construction process. Through digital reproduction, these deracinated stones are now doubly lost.’ (Building Design 27.01.2012)