Winner of the 2022 Stirling Prize

October 2022

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has named our project The New Library at Magdalene College in Cambridge as the winner of the 26th RIBA Stirling Prize, the UK’s most prestigious award for architecture.

The New Library contains a study space and library, archive and picture gallery and appears as an arrangement of simple brick volumes which echo the typical gabled forms of the existing College. The main library is a suite of interconnecting rooms lined with bookcases, reading desks and galleries, arranged on a tartan grid between interconnecting passageways. Conceived as a journey towards the light, three main reading rooms organise the principal circulation route through the library from the three-storey entrance hall, to a double-height central reading room and up to a long single-height room overlooking the garden.

Speaking on behalf of the 2022 RIBA Stirling Prize jury, RIBA President Simon Allford, said:

“A unique setting with a clear purpose – The New Library at Magdalene College is sophisticated, generous, architecture that has been built to last.

Creating a new building that will last at least 400 years is a significant challenge, but one that Niall McLaughlin Architects has risen to with the utmost skill, care and responsibility.”

Niall McLaughlin on Debrett’s 500 List

January 2014

Niall McLaughlin has been named one of Britain’s 500 Most Influential People by Debrett’s. The 500 List is a positive endorsement and recognition of achievement and influence. It includes people from across all fields of expertise, chosen by an independent panels of specialists who provide nominations for selections to Debrett’s. Other architects on the list include Zaha Hadid, Richard Rogers and David Chipperfield.

“Niall McLaughlin was first drawn to architecture by the curved windows of the Berkeley Library in Trinity College Dublin. When he first emerged as an architect in the late 1990s he was tipped for great things, winning Young British Architect of the Year in 1998 and recognised as one of the BBC’s Rising Stars in 2001. The Irish-born architect has progressed to exceed all expectations. Garlanded with awards for everything ranging from houses to chapels, McLaughlin is also a very influential teacher in the field at Britain’s most highly-regarded architecture school, the Bartlett. His design of the Bishop Edward King Chapel was shortlisted for the esteemed RIBA Stirling Prize in 2013.”

To view the full list click here