THE LIGNACITE LECTURE 2018
OCTOBER 2018
At Sadlers Well’s on the 16th October Niall will be giivng a lecture alongside Kim WIlkie titled Cultivated Land. ‘The mythical state of man living in nature never existed. We have always significantly altered and managed our landscapes for practical and symbolic reasons. We will explore the relationship between man and cultivated land, how this shaped our world and gave rise to the possibility of architecture. We will explore the future of our relationship with nature in these islands’. Tickets can be reserved through the Lignacite website here.
A+U FEATURE ON SOMERVILLE COLLEGE ACCOMMODATION
MAY 2014
The Japanese journal a+u has published an account of the practice’s student accommodation for Somerville College, Oxford. The theme of this month’s publication is ‘New Landscapes of Wooden Architecture’ and features an international selection of projects that explore new aspects of wood technology and its potential within cities. The article gives a description on the themes and processes behind the project, placing it within the context of the historic university city and the surrounding Radcliffe Infirmary Quarter.
It is illustrated with working details of the bespoke timber glazing for the stair tower lanterns, as well as the prefabricated timber projecting bay window units for the student bedrooms, with their integral desk and bench seat overlooking the street.
‘We chose to make the glazed elements in the stair towers and student rooms in wood because we wanted them to be like warm lanterns, internally lit in the evening, bringing light to the narrow street…Wood allowed us to make more three-dimensional details…we owe a debt to Louis Kahn’s work at Philip Exeter Academy Library.’ NM