THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM
OCTOBER 2016
The competition winning design for major alterations to London’s Natural History Museum, by Niall McLaughlin Architects and Kim Wilkie Landscape Architect, has been given planning approval by the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea. We will create a new civic square at the junction of Exhibition Road and Cromwell Road, a new entrance from South Kensington Underground Station and a series of garden galleries, extending the life of the museum out into its grounds.
To read Dezeen’s feature on the project, click here.
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)