O’DonnellBrown is a Glasgow-based architecture studio with a strong social conscience. 

Founded in 2013, by Jennifer O’Donnell and Sam Brown, we established our practice with projects for London Borough of Tower Hamlets, both as in-house and external consultants. These early projects taught us how to work with tight budgets, turning poorly built schools into inspiring and sustainable teaching spaces. They taught us how to look beyond a brief, traditional modes of practice and the studio, to build relationships which empower. 

From our self-built studio we are now winning a wide variety of projects, from community-led projects such as bringing renewed life to Millport Town Hall, to large scale housing like the Foundry, where we have a commitment to deliver life-enhancing homes, and have gained critical recognition as a finalist in the 2019 Architectural Review Emerging Architecture Awards.

We are people-focused: we use our projects to connect people and create opportunities. We partnered with Barnardo’s Works, an employment programme for young people, to build our self-initiated prototype demountable outdoor classroom, which helped the youth develop skills and job prospects. We have teamed up with a manufacturer to build the classroom in multiple locations, to raise expectations for outdoor learning environments in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Jennifer and Sam have maintained links with their alma mater Glasgow’s schools of architecture, both as visiting critics and studio tutors, and Sam previously taught at Central Saint Martins; they are passionate about using these relationships to help educate the next generation about the built environment and the social responsibility that comes with shaping it.

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