RIBA recognizes McGrath Road by Peter Barber Architects as the UK’s best housing project of 2021 by awarding it the Neave Brown Award for Housing. This is the second time RIBA awards the Neave Brown, after granting it to Goldsmith Street by Mikhail Riches Architects in collaboration with Cathy Hawley in 2019.
“In addition to its sheer inventiveness, this project has made a huge contribution to the wider area; projecting its optimism, whilst managing to feel neighbourly. The architects have moulded a place of character, both within the scheme and the community it serves. It demonstrates how imaginative street-based architecture can be socially progressive and architecturally engaging – a combination that endears Peter Barber Architects’ work to so many people.”
- David Mikhail, Chair of the Neave Brown Award for Housing jury
Peter Barber Architects arranges 26 affordable dwellings around a picturesque tree lined square. The scheme ensures each house has a balcony and a top floor living room that opens up to a terrace with a panoramic view. The floorplans explore clever 4 storey back-to-back and 3 storey double-aspect typologies.
The project looks as if carved from one material, brownish brick. The hard exterior is softened by two-storey arches, carved window openings and galvanised steel balconies.
