AT chats to Emma McNicholas and Chris Shiels, directors at OOBE – one of a select band of landscape architects who have taken part in the 2025 Regenerative Architecture Index.
OOBEOOBE worked alongside Stallan Brand to develop the primary public space at the heart of Barclays Campus and riverside promenade development in Glasgow. Designed to be as multifunctional as possible, the space includes areas for film screenings, street food markets and social events. (Credit: BDP)
Why OOBE?
There’s a track by a band called The Orb, which our co-founder Mike Goodall took inspiration from. Give it a listen! Technically it is an acronym that stands for out-of-box experience. But mostly, it’s ambiguous! Our MD, Ollie Smith, explored a few different options and spoke to our friends Stallan-Brand about the name, establishing our first studio as OOBE.
From the beginning we’ve been passionate about crafting functional landscapes that respect and work with nature. We always look to create meaningful outdoor spaces. Unique, functional, and undeniably beautiful, these environments foster connection between people and the environment around them.
OOBE also turned 15 this year, which was a great milestone for us!
How did you celebrate?
We were able to have a wonderful OOBE team day, where we got together across all the studios and caught up on all our hard work. We’re planning a party to celebrate our twentieth anniversary, and we’re excited to invite people we’ve worked with across the UK. This year, though, it’s been a great opportunity to think about where we’re going and what we’ve done. We had considered hosting big parties in Newcastle and Edinburgh, but we’ve signed up to be a founding partner for Scotland at MIPIM 2026 instead.
We’ve just set our 5-year plan, too.
What’s the plan?
We are committed to keeping our existing clients happy – 80% of our workload comes from repeat business. Our ethos is all about people and the environment, and really getting the balance right between the two, so we’re doing a lot of work with clients on helping them to focus on their ESG goals. We’re really pushing the sustainability aspect, but actually, we have been doing so from the start. It’s ingrained in what we do.
And, of course, we want to find new clients and really promote OOBE. Ideally, we’d like to undertake more large-scale projects. We don’t just do landscape design; we also provide urban design and masterplanning services. This enables us to add significant value by helping shape major projects at their earliest stages and then fully engaging over five or six years. In terms of additional services, we’ve been considering adding ecologists and a landscape planning specialist to our team. We currently have 23 staff members; we aim to reach around 50 in five years. But that all depends on the economy. Let’s see where we end up.
Have you got any plans to set up shop down south?
Right now, we are firmly established in the North, but yes, OOBE has great ambitions to grow. We’d love to open another studio somewhere that allows us to make a positive impact on landscape architecture. We’ve got projects in Cornwall, Inverness, Birmingham, Newcastle, Leeds. We also really enjoy having two studios in Scotland. Scotland is a lot more progressive than England in terms of sustainability, unbelievably so in fact. It’s really refreshing. For example, the planning policies are much better for landscape. In Glasgow, there’s a lot of emphasis on landscape and biodiversity. Edinburgh has an amazing landscape officer called Julie Waldron. Everybody listens to her. It’s amazing how often you hear the words “I’ll have to speak to Julie about that.”
For now, our Newcastle studio is expanding, our Edinburgh studio is growing arms and legs, the Glasgow studio has exciting new recruits, and we’re hopefully expanding across the UK in 2026 and beyond.
