Níall McLaughlin awarded RIBA royal gold medal for lifetime contribution to architecture

Níall McLaughlin has been awarded this year’s royal gold medal, one of the world’s most illustrious architectural honours, given by the Royal Institute of British Architects (Riba) on behalf of the monarch in recognition of a lifetime’s work. McLaughlin was first shortlisted for the Stirling prize in 2013 for a jewel-like chapel for a theological college near Oxford — an occasion on which he brought his client, a group of Anglican nuns, to the prize-giving, “the first (and possibly last) time” such attendance was seen.

He later won the Stirling prize in 2022 for the New Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge. Riba’s honours jury says the medal recognises McLaughlin’s impact across architectural practice, critical discourse and design education, and describes him as a “pivotal figure in contemporary architecture.” McLaughlin, trained at University College Dublin, has practised for three decades and runs a studio of 26 people above an Aldi on London’s Camden High Street.

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