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THE WELCOME BUILDING

SEPTEMBER 2017

The Welcome Building

The Welcome Building in Bishop Auckland consists of a new viewing tower and central ticketing hall for the The Auckland Project. It acts as an access point and gateway to the wider site whilst also giving views over the town and landscape setting. The tower – a timber framed structure – is now well under way on site.

The building team has worked tirelessly and with the highest level of precision, to build the in-situ concrete lift shaft. Working from the ground up seemed to take an age.

Meanwhile, the enormous larch glulam beams have been carefully crafted and manually grey-oiled in the joiner’s workshop.

The frames are now being lifted into position on site and suddenly the building can be seen. Almost in an instant. As if the past four years had happened in the blink of an eye.

We are so excited and proud – even – to see this fantasy project becoming real at last. But with completion on the horizon, time seems to now move all too fast.

APPG ON HOUSING AND CARE FOR THE ELDERLY

OCTOBER 2014

Niall McLaughlin spoke at the latest All-Party Parliamentary Group meeting on Housing and Care for Older People, which was held at the House of Lords this month. The meeting explored the relationship between housing and dementia, with contributions from invited architects, academics and practitioners in the field.

The aim of the APPG, which was set up in 2009 and is chaired by Lord Richard Best, is to highlight the importance of the role of housing, alongside social care and health, in the development of support and services for older people. The forum aims to encourage an integrated approach to care for the elderly in relation to these three areas and provide a forum for setting government agenda.