From invisible timber junctions to Newton spectra on chapel walls, Niall McLaughlin recalls a series of encounters with a community of nuns that quietly upend assumptions about faith, expertise and architectural value.
Architectural stories are often told through drawings, buildings and photographs. Occasionally, they are distilled most clearly through a single anecdote. In the following recollection, the 2026 Royal Gold Medal-winner describes a series of exchanges with a community of nuns that touch on cost, craftsmanship, light, prayer and technical expertise, offering a quietly profound insight into how architectural value is understood, debated and ultimately felt.
When working on Bishop Edward King Chapel, Oxford, McLaughlin conducted design development sessions with his clients, the Sisters of St John the Baptist.
“I remember presenting the tender returns for the wooden structure to the nuns. I explained that the cheapest tender had visible bolts at the junctions of the intertwining woodwork. For an additional £10,000, they could have a junction with invisible connections. Their accountant responded, “In all my years of working in finance, I never thought I would hear someone trying to persuade me to spend £10,000 making something invisible 36 feet up in the air!” There was a long pause before they continued, “But then I think about myself at prayer….”
The sisters approached me, asking if it would be a good idea to have some stained glass. I explained my concept that the plain daylight coming through the deciduous tree canopy, high up in the clerestory, would be enough. After some debate, they said they would go away and pray about it. When the clear glazing was installed in the ventilation louvres high up, it produced a stunning pattern of Newton spectra on the walls of the chapel. They invited me in to see it. I was flabbergasted! They said nothing, but I know a smirk when I see one.
Many of the sisters entered the order in middle age. They often had different lives before that. One devout nun used to grill me on the relative merits of varying polymer roofing membranes. It transpired that she was a former technical advisor to the British Flat Roofing Council.”
