Losing Myself. Irish pavilion in the Venice Biennale

Niall McLaughlin was born in Geneva in 1962. He was educated in Dublin and received his architectural qualifications from University College Dublin in 1984. He worked for Scott Tallon Walker in Dublin and London between 1984 and 1989. He established his own practice, Níall McLaughlin Architects, in London in 1990, with a view to designing high-quality modern buildings with a special emphasis on materials and detail. Níall won Young British Architect of the Year in 1998, was one of the BBC Rising Stars in 2001, and his work represented Britain in a US exhibition, Gritty Brits at the Carnegie Mellon Museum.

Niall McLaughlin was born in Geneva in 1962. He was educated in Dublin and studied architecture at University College Dublin between 1979 and 1984, receiving his architectural qualifications in 1984. He worked for Scott Tallon Walker in Dublin and London between 1984 and 1989, spending four years with the practice. He established his own practice, Níall McLaughlin Architects, in London in 1990, with a view to designing high-quality modern buildings with a special emphasis on materials and detail. His work includes buildings for education, culture, health, religious worship and housing.

Níall won Young British Architect of the Year in 1998, was one of the BBC Rising Stars in 2001, and his work represented Britain in the US exhibition Gritty Brits at the Carnegie Mellon Museum. He received the RIBA Charles Jencks Award for Simultaneous Contribution to Theory and Practice in 2016. He was elected a member of Aosdána for his outstanding contribution to the arts in Ireland and was elected a Royal Academician in the category of Architecture in 2019. In 2020, he was awarded an Honorary MBE for Services to Architecture. He received the 2026 Royal Gold Medal for Architecture.

Niall’s designs have won many awards in the UK, Ireland and the US, including an RIAI Award for Best Building in the Landscape and the RIBA Stephen Lawrence Award. His work was shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2013, 2015 and 2018, and he won the Stirling Prize in 2022 for the New Library at Magdalene College.

Níall exhibited work at the Venice Biennale in 2016 and 2018, and co-curated the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition Architecture Rooms in 2022 with Rana Begum.

Niall is Professor of Architectural Practice at University College London; was a visiting professor at the University of California, Los Angeles from 2012–2013, and was appointed Lord Norman Foster Visiting Professor of Architecture at Yale University for 2014–2015. He acted as Chair of the RIBA Awards Group from 2007 to 2009.

Niall McLaughlin has a particular interest in the complexities of designing for dementia. He collaborated extensively with the Alzheimer’s Society of Ireland to conceptualise, design and inhabit their first new building, the multi-award-winning Alzheimer’s Respite Centre in Dublin. Niall has given numerous lectures on the subject, including to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment in 2010, and at The University of Strathclyde Specialist Dementia Centre in 2013. He was invited to present to the All-Party Parliamentary Group at the House of Lords on Housing and Care for Older People in 2014, and was Convenor of the 2015 RIBA Research Conference on Ageing.