The Association's North Gate building has been named as a winner of a Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) Award for 2024.
In addition, RIAS also awarded North Gate’s lead architect, James Brimble of Glasgow practice Page\Park, Project Architect of the Year.
The seven-storey frontage of North Gate provides a Gateway to the Gorbals that is befitting of its prominent location. It is the only building in the 11-strong winners list to come from a social housing provider.
The judges noted that they were “impressed by the architects’ commitment to provide convivial, attractive and robustly-detailed homes clearly adored by residents and making for a new part of the city.”
The North Gate development on Crown Street comprises a mixture of one- and two-bedroom apartments with shared facilities including a communal lounge, kitchen, activity area, bike and scooter store, and laundry. The 31 dwelling scheme was modelled to suit the needs of older residents, enabling them to continue to lead active and independent lives. Many of the tenants have come from high rise blocks that have been cleared for demolition.
Director of NGHA, Fraser Stewart, said:
“We are delighted that North Gate has been recognised in the RIAS Awards 2024, especially as the only social housing design to win an award.
“As the Gorbals is an area which suffered from poorly designed and constructed housing in the past, the Association is determined to develop the highest quality social housing we can for our tenants, and that starts with excellent design.
“It is local folk that lead our organisation, and it is them who push our designers to achieve their very best, so we are delighted that James Brimble has been awarded Project Architect of the Year by RIAS.”
This accolade is the latest in a list of awards for the North Gate development which includes a Saltire Housing Design Award – the 9th for NGHA – and a Gold Scottish Design Award for Architecture.
Designed by Page\Park architects and built by CCG (Scotland) Ltd, North Gate was funded by Glasgow City Council in partnership with the Scottish Government, with New Gorbals Housing Association contributing £2.4M private funding obtained from The Housing Finance Corporation.
