DRIFT Shortlisted for AJ Small Projects Award 2025
Front Cover of Architects Journal Small Projects Award Journal - an award OGU Architects won in 2023 for Adelaide Street.
We’re thrilled to announce that DRIFT, our floating pavilion on the River Lagan in Belfast, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Architects' Journal Small Projects Award 2025. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the AJ Small Projects Awards, which celebrate the best of small-scale architecture across the UK. For the first time in the award’s history, 30 projects have been shortlisted – showcasing the innovation and design ingenuity achievable with modest budgets.
Conceived as part of the Belfast 2024 cultural programme, DRIFT exemplifies our ongoing research into placemaking, temporary urban interventions, and the role of architecture in reactivating public space. Designed in collaboration with sound artist Matilde Meireles, the 54m² pavilion was moored at two distinct sites – Stranmillis Weir and Waterfront Hall – inviting the public to experience the River Lagan through new sensory and spatial perspectives.
DRIFT was open daily throughout September 2024, offering a dynamic public platform for performance, listening, gathering, and reflection. The design responded directly to its riverine context, with materials chosen to resonate with Belfast’s maritime and industrial heritage. Blue cotton rope recalled the city’s rope-making legacy, punched fabric screens evoked sails and temporary shelters, and an exposed aluminium scaffold structure referenced the robust, functional language of river infrastructure.
Beyond aesthetics, DRIFT represents a deeper commitment to urban design strategies that embrace impermanence, testing how light-touch, low-impact interventions can foster civic engagement and emotional connection to place. It is a built research project – exploring how architecture can shift perceptions of neglected or underused urban landscapes.
We are honoured that DRIFT has been recognised among such a diverse and inspiring shortlist, including parks, saunas, outdoor classrooms, and community-led spaces – all completed on budgets under £399,000. The award reaffirms our belief that small projects are vital laboratories for innovation, empathy, and sustainable design.
Thank you to our collaborators, including MMAS, Matilde Meireles, Design ID, Inland and Coastal, Advanced Scaffold NI, Cuan Marine and the wider Belfast City Council 2024 team, and congratulations to all fellow nominees.
The Entries are listed here in the Architects Journal Website here
OGU Architects have previously won the award for Adelaide Street - so fingers crossed for our presentation in London.
Architects Journal 30th Anniversary of Small Projects Award - DRIFT feature.