The Guardian on the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition
June 2022
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
Charles Jencks Award
September 2016
Niall has been announced as winner of the Charles Jencks Award 2016, which is given annually to an outstanding architect or practice that ‘has recently made a major contribution to both the theory and practice of architecture’.
Explaining the judges’ choice, RIBA President Jane Duncan said: ‘Niall’s body of work exemplifies the spirit of this award, which recognises the ability to seamlessly, and, in this case, beautifully, build theory into one’s practice. I am in awe of the materiality and the craftsmanship, of the dedication, the collaborative relationships and the contextual sensitivity with which Niall’s buildings are created.’
According to Charles Jencks, Niall ‘is a great inspiration for architects today, especially the young, because of his masterful skill in drawing from all traditions – Classicism, Modernism, Postmodernism. All the ‘isms’ are under his belt, not on his back, and he extends them all through the commitment to architecture as an art and professional practice’
Previous winners of the award include Herzog & de Meuron, Benedetta Tagliabue, Rem Koolhaas, Stephen Holl and Zaha Hadid.
Niall will receive the award at a public lecture, chaired by Charles Jencks, at RIBA on 25th October.