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Twelve Halls – A Book by Niall McLaughlin Architects

September 2018

Twelve Halls – A Book by Niall McLaughlin Architects

We are proud to announce the publication of our first book about the work of the practice. ‘Twelve Halls’ contains a collection of built and unbuilt projects, published to coincide with our contribution to the 16th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

The publication is available in a number of architectural bookshops including the RIBA, the AA and the RIAI.

‘Eternal Problems’, RIBA Journal Exhibition Review by Niall McLaughlin

June 2014

Niall McLaughlin has written a piece for the RIBA Journal on the symbolic use of architecture within early Renaissance Art. The essay describes observations based on a visit to the ‘Building the Picture’ exhibition, currently on show at the National Gallery in London. The exhibition gathers together architectonic works by the Italian masters of the 14th-16th centuries that explore real and imagined architectural space.

The article observes how the Renaissance artists’ enthusiasms for displaying their newly discovered skills of perspective and knowledge of the classical forms are conflated with a religious symbolism. The tropes of classical architecture are used as visual metaphors for the divine and eternal. The article explores the effect of these spaces on the viewer and the reasons why the idealised architecture tends to alienate rather than engage.