Redeveloped inner city site will be a landmark in affordable housing design

Long before apartment living became popular among private homeowners, this accommodation option was being advocated by Dublin Corporation. Seeking an alternative to the tenement dwellings which so many citizens were forced to occupy, the local authority developed a substantial number of apartment buildings across the capital.

Sadly, few of them could ever claim to have any architectural merit and in this respect one of the worst examples can be found close to that superlative instance of good urban design, Merrion Square. Located at the bottom of Holles Street and wrapping around on to Fenian Street, St Andrew's Court is a pair of apartment blocks dating from the 1960s. Earlier this year, the corporation undertook some necessary restoration work on the buildings' exteriors but did not use the opportunity to improve the pitiful appearance of the entire site.

Oddly enough, at the same time this refurbishment was taking place, the local authority launched a competition for the development of a corner between the blocks where the two streets meet. At the moment, this is occupied by a rather grim single-storey retail unit which is notable mostly for the metal shutters covering all its windows. But under the 1999 Affordable Housing Scheme, the corporation declared an intention to demolish the structure and replace it with a new outlet below a five-plus storey apartment infill. The intention is that when the block has been built, the accommodation units will be sold by the corporation to people on its waiting list at an estimated cost price, and therefore at significantly less than the usual market figure.

By the closing date early last June, more than 100 entries from throughout Europe and North America had been received for the competition, organised under the auspices of the RIAI. The brief required that while the design of a corner building at a major junction should be considered important, so too ought the matter of affordability because "the occupant is crucial for the success of the project". The competition's eventual winner was Howley Harrington Architects, a relatively young practice but one already well-known in Dublin since it was responsible for the city's pedestrian Millennium Bridge across the Liffey. The design is not only far superior to the usual standard of local authority work but to that produced by the majority of private developers. Indeed, the latter should be encouraged to take note of many features of the scheme.

Principal among these are the development's environmentally conscious elements such as the series of solar thermal panels on the roof which pre-heat water for supply to a condensing boiler; the central hot and cold water storage; and grey water recycling for the building's toilets. The architects estimate that as a result of such features, as well as super-insulation and thermal shutters, the energy consumed by each residential unit will cost less than £50 (63.49) per annum.

Qualitative concerns have also ensured that although the small site runs on a north-south axis, all apartments will have an east-west dual aspect, with every bedroom getting morning sunlight and each unit including a private, sunny outdoor space. Half the ground-floor area will be devoted to an easily-accessible bicycle store and a large waste recycling area. According to Howley Harrington, "this will encourage good responsible environmental practices by the occupants".

The tricky matter of ensuring privacy within a communal block has been given careful consideration. In their plans, the architects divided the development into three vertical "zones", the first being devoted to shared circulation beginning with a canopied ground-floor access area and leading on to the building's staircase, made of untreated iroko boards supported on a lightweight steel frame. At every level there is both a common open space and a private one found behind a semi-opaque glass screen which provides an additional level of security since it can be locked by the apartment's residents. The very top of the block is to hold a large, south-facing roof garden, on stepped terraces and open to all residents.

The second zone contains all services and at its centre lies the building's lift; on either side of this and inside each apartment are the bathrooms and kitchens. The kitchen windows overlook the apartment's front door and private terrace, thereby providing yet another measure of discreet security. The final zone is devoted to living and sleeping spaces, with each floor holding one single-bed and one two-bed apartment.

With their own small balconies, the larger units' livingrooms are to occupy the section of the building swinging out from the present building line and, especially on the upper storeys, they are sure to provide fantastic views across the city centre. One final point worth making here is that none of the apartments' living/bedroom internal walls is load-bearing, so residents can rearrange the configuration of spaces to suit their individual requirements.

The new development is not only environmentally sound but visually attractive, with its cement-rendered stepped walls and timber-framed windows, the whole topped by the solar-panelled roof garden.

The building manages to be bold but not overwhelming and to make a strong statement without resorting to mannered ornamentation. Clearly Dublin Corporation is delighted with the results; the assessors on this scheme described the winning design as "beautifully presented", considering the whole block "ambitious in its treatment of the urban domain and in its use of light and exploitation of views within each apartment".

According to Tony Duggan of the City Architect's department, the local authority intends to seek planning permission for the work in the coming months and to begin construction on the site next spring, with completion provisionally planned for early 2003. "It has started a debate about the possibility of small schemes in pockets of the city," Duggan says, "and also a discussion about how people can and should live in apartments".

While this is the first time such an inner city site will be developed as affordable housing, the same scheme is also being used to good effect at Cherry Orchard in south-west Dublin, where some 400 houses are to be built, and at Ratoath Road, Finglas.

Meanwhile, St Andrew's Court could only benefit from additional corporation attention. Behind the present two blocks facing on to Holles Street and Fenian Street is a large space; at the moment it is mostly used as an unofficial car-park by visitors to the National Maternity Hospital. This must be regarded as extravagant wastage in a city where building land has become desperately scarce.

Instead of being left in its present condition, the southern and western perimeters of the space could easily hold additional housing, which would both provide more badly needed local authority accommodation and create a secure square at the centre of St Andrew's Court. When questioned on this matter, Tony Duggan says that while there are no definite plans, the corporation "does have aspirations to do more with the site, particularly with the inner court".

And when the corporation has finished there, perhaps some thought might next be paid to the large and equally wasteful south-westly vacant site diagonally opposite St Andrew's Court?