Judges Category Winner Interview with Linda Thiel, Partner, White Arkitekter
White Arkitekter won the British Homes Award for Affordable Housing in 2025 for Gascoigne West Phase 2. We talk to Linda Thiel who heads up the practice’s London studio and also led the team on that successful scheme. She talks through White Arkitekter’s commitment to design excellence, community engagement and climate resilience.
The multiple towers that make up Gascoigne West Phase 2.
With less than a month until the 2026 British Homes Awards ceremony, we take a look back at one of 2025’s winners, Gascoigne West Phase 2 (above), which took home the top prize in the Affordable Housing category. The site was developed by Be First, the urban regeneration company of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham with design courtesy of White Arkitekter and delivery by Wates. The project introduces 386 new homes, a vibrant community hub, and a 1,500m² playground. Sixty percent of homes are Affordable Rent, London Affordable Rent, or Shared Ownership, including a significant proportion of family homes. Overall, this transformative scheme sets a new benchmark for affordable homes regeneration and is rooted in equitable living, climate resilience and well-being.
Q: For Gascoigne West Phase 2, what was the brief and what were the guiding design principles of this project?
LT: “We learned a lot through the two previous phases we worked on, on this site, both in terms of the context, the neighbourhood and the community. We were able to nudge things along a little on each phase and getting to know the actual people living there, their constraints and circumstances was essential to us. On Gascoigne East, we took large courtyard blocks based on an Allies and Morrison masterplan and changed them to break up the courtyards with views. On Gascoigne West Phase One, we tweaked the linear blocks to support the site's London plane trees. When we got to Gascoigne West Phase Two, it was very difficult to navigate, with lots of open space that wasn't accessible, and a playground untouched since the 1960s/70s. Our response was to propose five identical towers with one and two bed flats, plus 30–50 townhouses for families most in need: swapping the usual approach of pushing families into flats for affordable homes. This let us keep pushing and pulling tower heights to accommodate the tenure split. Having families on the ground floor also strengthened community life.”
Q: Tell me more about the landscape-led placemaking strategy of Gascoigne West Phase 2?
LT: “Gascoigne Road splits the whole estate in two. There were OK north-south connections through the site, whereas the east-west connection was poor and difficult to navigate through, partly due to the fencing needed around the primary schools and also by the way the former estate had been laid out, with scattered buildings and no linear streets. So the whole placemaking strategy: ‘The Big Picture’ looked into connecting green space, strengthening walking and cycling routes east-west, and highlighting how the north-south routes could be strengthened, with ‘nipping into town’ strategies too. The route from Green Fields Park to River Roding was also previously difficult for people living there to understand; they always knew it was there, for example for a Sunday stroll, but it just needed highlighting. This was led by our landscape architect Jake Ford, who works across our Malmö and London offices.”
Q: Climate resilience is another key part of your design response what sort of elements were incorporated?
LT: “Our approach was really about creating a more climate resilient landscape design, working with the existing landscape and retaining the various large trees along Gascoigne Road and within the site. Our landscape architect worked with Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), rain gardens and play-along-street strategies, bringing all of this together to manage floods, stormwater and drought. The site slopes diagonally, creating thresholds in terms of disabled access to the homes, where it steps down. We took the opportunity to use the trees and setbacks for the townhouses as wind buffers. We also wanted to strengthen the north-south connections through green buffers, creating privacy while allowing residents to be embraced by greenery. The strategy also included the townhouses having back gardens towards the shared courtyards, creating spaces where everyone can meet.”
Q: What is White Arkitekter’s Places for Girls research initiative and how is its principles reflected in Gascoigne West Phase 2?
LT: “We do it in two sessions with a week or two in between with girls in year 8. In the first session, we ask them to map their neighbourhood in terms of safety and accessibility, evaluating what they perceive as high or poor quality space, and we do a mini civic brief, allowing them to get their voice heard. I talk about who actually decides what gets built – the role of the Mayor's office, the local authority, how it all works, when the contractor comes in, what a developer does, and what an architect does: basically the background to the built environment that we take for granted. Then we highlight why it's so important to get their voices, because they always know their neighbourhood and they're the ones who use it. The next session is more hands-on: designing, drawing, mapping what they actually want. They felt the need for wayfinding, landmarks, safe havens as you walk across, where things are open late, or where you have a front door to knock on walking home from a friend's late at night. They also wanted more green playgrounds accommodating both younger siblings and themselves as teenagers. They were so insightful: one described pushing her grandfather in his wheelchair while holding her little brother's hand, asking what the width of the pavement should be; hands-on things like that. They asked for more colour so we put the two red towers at either end, but at different heights with more beige grey brick buildings next to them.”
Gascoigne West Phase 2 provides ample sightlines for all residents as well as places to play
Q: Can you talk through what you’ve taken from this scheme that you have taken into other projects?
LT: “Learnings from Gascoigne West Phase 2 are already shaping how the team approaches other projects. Chief among them is a shift towards designing from the inside out, starting with how internal spaces actually work: the relationship between kitchen and living areas, and whether bedrooms can flex to accommodate home working or study, a need that became especially clear during the pandemic, rather than beginning with a striking facade and pushing furniture around to fit. Window sill height has also proved a valuable lesson: keeping sills raised rather than running glazing to the floor allows residents to place beds and desks against windows without resorting to curtains or makeshift screens for privacy, while also helping to manage overheating, daylight and energy performance. That said in the townhouses one young resident described sitting on the floor and actually seeing if her friends are playing in the playground, a reminder of how much ground-level sightlines matter in family housing, for children's independence as much as their safety.”
Q: And finally, why is entering awards important for architects?
LT: “We always have conversations around which awards we should enter and whether it’s the right year in terms of the projects we have. We’re proud of Gascoigne West Phase 2 because it showed a shift of how you would design a wider place. We knew we were doing something slightly different and it was really amazing to get that recognition. I’m particularly proud of the British Homes Award because it was for affordable housing and knowing all the challenges that comes with both designing and delivering affordable housing, and the extreme need for it. Housing is such a big part of social infrastructure, so it is really amazing that these local authority built or affordable housing schemes get recognized.”
