0 OGU is an architecture, research and Urban Design Studio based in Belfast. We help socially conscious clients improve public places and buildings through careful research, material quality and meaningful collaboration with makers and manufacturers. Our Story | Who We Are OGU have developed an engaged practice working primarily with public clients, community groups and business groups to develop thoughtful, positive design.

We often work in areas of the city that feel impossible to improve, testing solutions in neglected corners with architecture at various scales. We try to be considerate collaborators and listeners. The practice has recently been selected by the RIBA as one of 5 ‘future winners’, including OGU as one of the most promising UK practices set up in the last 10 years.

The quality of our work is consistently recognised through awards: for example, the Adelaide Street Project won the prestigious Architects Journal Small Projects Award joining an illustrious list of previous winners. Chris Upson is a founding director of OGU Architects and an Expert Adviser to the Ministerial Advisory Group for Architecture and the Built Environment. Chris worked for many years in Dublin, London and Northern Ireland on various building and urban projects including court buildings, a major extension of a community Cancer Centre in North Belfast, concert halls and performance spaces, conservation (including the refurbishment of a listed public baths), the refurbishment of a church in South Belfast, the refurbishment and extension of Delamont House for the Education Authority on the banks of Strangford Lough, large scale housing and urban design work including post-Olympic development at Hackney Wick, London.

Chris set up OGU Architects with Rachel O’Grady in 2014. OGU primarily work with socially conscious clients and local communities to improve public places and buildings. They employ careful research, value material quality and prioritise meaningful collaboration with makers and manufacturers.