The London-based Irish architect and educator told a packed room at RIBA’s headquarters Thursday evening (October 13) that working in the sector “can often be a punitive process”. He took home his new library prize at Magdalene College, and thanked his wife Mary, who “carefully trained the winding ends of the toughest days.”
In an interview with A.J., McLaughlin later admitted that his ‘luxury was often influenced by the things I take home’ and criticized the ‘long tradition in architecture’ that ‘you must somehow give yourself all to an architectural assignment, if you really are,’ You really mean it.”
McLaughlin also spoke out against the “culture of antagonism in construction” and said the common problems were “not good at all” – although he added that the Magdalen College library project was an exception to normal pressure and that the design and build for a contractor the project consisted of “sweethearts”.
Earlier in the evening, President-elect Moiwa Aoki made his own statement, attending the Stirling Prize Ceremony at the Institute’s premises with costume designer and Bartlett cashier Eleni Kiriakou. Aoki also wore clothes from her collection, It’s time to rebuildwhich responds to the trauma she and former Bartlett students and employees experienced.
Muyiwa Oki and Eleni Kyriacou outside RIBA headquarters at 66 Portland Place
in january RIBA refused to rent a room to Kyriacou for a fashion shoot due to her role in highlighting Bartlett’s discrimination. Former RIBA chief executive Alan Vallance said the reservation at Portland Place was denied because RIBA did not want to prejudice the independent investigation into Bartlett.
Commenting on Oki’s decision to take Kyriacou to the event at the Institute’s London headquarters, former Director of Diversity and Inclusion at RIBA Marsha Ramrup twitter:Fabulous! Tweet embed before the election Tweet embed He has a whistleblower Bartlett Tweet embed on his arm to #RibaAwards # Sterling Breeze Wearing the clothes she was not allowed to be photographed at 66PP. Bold and significant, indicate change. played par excellence’
The BBC’s Naga Munshitty hosted the 2022 Stirling Prize ceremony. The winners of general clientAnd the Stephen Lawrence Award And the Neff Brown Award It was also announced at the event. After-dinner entertainment was provided by the hip-hop and dance troupe of the early 1990s, which played in the auditorium located in the institute’s basement.
Q&A with Níall Mclaughlin
Did you think you would win the Stirling Prize?
Well, if you ask me as an architecture student at University College Dublin (UCD) in 1985, did I think I would win a Stirling Prize or something then [my answer would have been] ‘You must be kidding’.
I’ve never seen my life develop, or my career turn outward, in this way at all. I would never imagine myself practicing this practice. I certainly would not have imagined coming to another country and setting up a practice in that country.
It is unusual to have a file immigrant You can get our projects
And what’s exceptional for me as an immigrant from another country, where I’m establishing my practice, is how open this country is: it’s just so unusual for someone to come from abroad and get the kinds of projects we have. It’s a wonderful aspect of British society and I really like it.
Irish architects have won two years in a row – what should people make of it?
I’ve been shortlisted four times, but I think O’Donnell + Tommy has been shortlisted five times and definitely should. [have won]…well, you can’t say in any particular year that they should have won, because the winner is the winner. But there are two cast-iron buildings for the Stirling Prize, including the Louis Glucksman Gallery (shortlisted in 2005).
So there has been an extraordinary influx of high quality architecture from Ireland. And the interesting thing: All of these people were in the School of Architecture at University College Dublin. [Grafton Architects founders] Taught me by Shelley McNamara, 3rd year Yvonne Farrell, and Sheila O’Donnell [of O’Donnell + Tuomey] She taught me in the fourth year. John Tommy was there.
So all these people were my teachers. Obviously, this world was a very fertile world at that time. It was an unusual culture in school at that time.
Is this library your best building?
How do you compare them? All of the other projects we’ve done are much more, in a sense, experimental. This is a complete return to my roots. And when you go back to your roots, you have a very strong sense that you know what to do. It is almost in the water. And so from the start with this building I felt very confident about what we were looking to do and didn’t feel like I had to put in the effort to achieve it.
Compared to other buildings, the library has much less finesse – it takes no effort to achieve the effect
If you compare it to the other buildings, you will find that it is a lot less subtle, which is something I like. In other words, it’s not impact stress – the effect comes from the basic architectural premise, which is laid out in plan and section.
Are you lucky to have a client like Magdalene College? To what extent would it be possible to create such kind of exquisite and high craftsmanship buildings for different clients?
Colleges are distinct communities. There is money invested in them, they have beautiful workplaces, they have quality teachers, and they nurture very strong learning communities. So they are special places, and I don’t think we should be ashamed of that.
For an architect or builder, or perhaps most importantly for a student, is this an open-ended franchise? Is this a privilege that people who get this privilege can get?
It’s okay to have a privilege in any society
I don’t think the question is about their privilege, because it’s okay to have a privilege in any society. But the point is: Is it a diverse community? Do we get people from different backgrounds coming in to learn and teach? Are they open to the types of builders and architects they hire? Are opportunities to participate in this franchise available to people?
There is a radical shift in Oxford and Cambridge about how those colleges set up their booth and think of themselves. And remember, you’re building the building for the next generation – not the last.
The day the Stirling Prize jury ends, [the University of Cambridge] It was an open day where all the new students are walking around looking at the colleges and it is amazing how diverse this group of students is. I would like to think, optimistically, that these colleges will be places of extraordinary opportunities for people who have more or less earned the privilege of learning there.
Magdalene College Library Designed for 400 Years – Will you advocate for more architects to design for that longevity, and what are the challenges of doing so?
There are two issues. One of them is the construction of long-term buildings. It’s a good thing in itself – why not build buildings to last? And that’s in terms of their material properties but also in terms of layout, because they have to have a degree of flexibility. we know [that there are] The buildings that we inherited from past centuries, which you can still use in all sorts of ways because they are made of a set of rooms which are basically usable rooms. Thus there is a degree of flexibility. There is a degree of physical durability that you have to consider.
Níall Mclaughlin holds champagne after winning the Stirling Prize last night (October 13)
But there is another problem that we must be careful about. The issue on sustainability often says, “Well, we’re building sustainably, because we’re making something here that lasts a very long time.” But the requirements for the climate emergency are a little different, because the climate emergency has been sold out by 2050 at the latest. And so I don’t agree with building forever with materials that won’t let you tackle the climate emergency – you have to try and tackle both at the same time.
Your acceptance letter called for “teamwork to reduce additional stress” in the built environment. Could you explain what you mean by that and what the problems are?
There are a number of issues and it would be difficult to put them all in one interview. Building construction, or building contracts, is backed by a culture of adversarialism. There is a huge amount of money at risk. Projects are generally at risk and people are investing heavily in them.
There is a culture within architecture that you have to somehow give to yourself
Meanwhile, there is a culture within architecture, which comes from a long tradition of architecture, education, and architectural practice, in which you somehow have to give yourself entirely — and exhaust yourself — to the architectural mission, if you really, truly mean it.
Neither [those things] Good but when it crashes, it’s not good at all. And one of the obligations of anyone who runs a practice is to say, “When people come to work in my office, how do they feel? Do they feel cared for and supported?”
If you look at a school, the students, the staff, the career services staff, there has to be a world of mutual respect, and an understanding that everyone is trying to create a culture that includes caring for each other. This should also happen in offices. This should also happen on construction sites. And it should happen in all other work that revolves around architecture.
There have been, in the past 30 years, a lot of problems with that. The reason I said that in my speech tonight is because it’s hard for people at the bottom of the clicking order to say it’s not good enough.
I just wanted to say it from a privileged point of view: My life and well-being have often been affected by the things I take home – which is very difficult – from the work environment. And I think throughout the construction industry, across architectural practices, and also in architecture education, we have to start being responsible for each other and saying that’s actually not good enough.
What is left to achieve? What’s Next?
My focus now is on my amazing team in my practice. What I want to do is make sure that I go to work and enjoy the work, but in reality the ownership and management of the practice will change to that group of people in a way that allows it to be a more collective model of organization. And I also want to do some thinking and writing as well. The other thing is that we have the coolest set of projects.
The Catherine Hughes Building, Solmerville College, Oxford designed by Níall McLaughlin Architects
Source: Nick Keane