• Gap Homes North Glasgow

    Gap Homes North Glasgow

  • Gap Homes North Glasgow

    Gap Homes North Glasgow

  • Overnewton Place

    Overnewton Place

  • Overnewton Place

    Overnewton Place

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O’DonnellBrown win competition with post-pandemic housing for the young

O’DonnellBrown have won a competition by HUB and Euan Blair’s apprenticeships company WhiteHat to pitch ideas for post-pandemic housing that addresses the needs of young people

by Georgina Johnston 20 November 2020

Seven architects were shortlisted to pitch ideas for post-pandemic housing that addresses the needs of young people, including better access to career training and networking opportunities. 

The panel was made up of Robert Sloss, CEO of HUB; Pooja Agrawal, assistant director of Strategy Service at Homes England; Georgia Young, a WhiteHat apprentice at Mace; Euan Blair, cofounder and CEO of WhiteHat and Damien Sharkey, Managing Director, HUB.The panel was led by residential developer HUB with the winning practice invited to work with HUB on a forthcoming project. Each pitch followed social distancing guidelines.

The advent of covid added new urgency as it became obvious that people from disadvantaged backgrounds were being worst affected by the social and economic impacts of the pandemic, and more was needed from housing post-pandemic. Hence we partnered with Archiboo on a competition for fresh ideas for housing to enhance life chances.

D. Sharkey, Managing Director, HUB

Archiboo’s Architect Pitch with HUB and WhiteHat attracted 52 submissions from practices across the UK. The winning studio’s Director, Jennifer O’Donnell, showed a series of self initiated projects, including an outdoor classroom, impressing the panel with its understanding of how young people have been impacted by the pandemic.

According to new research from the Quality of Life Foundation, less than half of young people are satisfied with their home. O'DonnellBrown impressed the panel with their humble approach, with their demonstration of collaboration in process and partnerships, and with delightful flexible spaces like the Community Classroom.

P. Agrawal, Assistant Director, Strategy Service at Homes England

O’DonnellBrown’s first of its winning projects was Gap Homes North Glasgow for Barnardo’s. The five single storey homes arranged around shared outdoor space will be the first of its type to be delivered by Barnardo’s and is to be replicated on sites across the UK, developed around a concept of protection, enclosure and community.

The second winning project was Overnewton Place for Mitre Properties. Four mews houses within a tenement back court in Glasgow’s Finnieston area; an optimised plan to create space within each new home for two bikes, external space to clean a bike and a bike repair stand in the communal courtyard. 


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