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The Guardian on the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

June 2022

The Guardian on the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition

Olly Wainwright has published his Guardian review of this year’s Royal Academy architecture rooms which have been co-curated by Níall McLaughlin and artist Rana Begum. With this year’s theme being ‘Climate’, Wainwright highlights that “Architects and engineers have, after all, some responsibility for the mess we’re in, given that 40% of carbon emissions come from buildings. They also have the means to do something about it”. Níall commented, “there can be a sense of fatalism about the climate, but our discipline can show that imaginative change is possible”. 

The article reviews a few select pieces such as Stonemasonry Company and Webb Yates engineers’ large stone beam titled ‘Equanimity’, the Khudi Bari (or Tiny House), a modular monsoon-resistant shelter designed by Bangladeshi architect Marina Tabassum, and Thai architect Boonserm Premthada’s ‘Dung Power’ a structure made from elephant dung bricks. 

The article can be accessed here. 

Image © Royal Academy of Arts, London / David Parry

Natural History Museum, Hintz Hall Opening

July 2017

Natural History Museum, Hintz Hall Opening

Niall attended the Natural History Museum VIP opening of Hintze Hall and the introduction of Hope – the new blue whale skeleton suspended from Alfred Waterhouse’s wrought iron roof structure.

This new exhibit marks a new chapter in the Museum’s engagement with the public on scientific issues. Meanwhile Dippy the Dinosaur has embarked on a UK-wide tour which will culminate in the skeleton being cast in bronze before taking up its new home in the NMLA-designed Museum grounds.

The first phase of this project involves the restoration and introduction of accessibility to the Museum’s famous main entrance and is due to complete in November 2017.