Sheltered scheme gives small community a heart

An award-winning scheme of sheltered housing in Gorey is a delightful place to live, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor

Paul Keogh Architects (PKA) may be better known as the designers of Ireland's tallest building, a 32-storey residential tower planned for a site opposite Heuston Station. But the everyday work of this Dublin-based practice is far-removed from "skyscrapers" and includes a delightful sheltered housing scheme in Gorey, Co Wexford.

St Michael's Court, located directly opposite the gates of Gorey's Catholic church, was recently named as "Best Housing Project" in the RIAI's Irish Architecture Awards for 2005. It is in a different league altogether from most of the new housing built in Ireland and, in particular, the commuter-belt estates springing up around Gorey.

It might seem unusual that a town of its size has a homeless problem. For years, those in need were looked after by Bridie Kinsella, a remarkable Christian who ran the long-established Bolacreen restaurant on the main street. "She never left anyone stranded," says Mattie Lacey, president of the local St Vincent de Paul conference.

A more permanent solution was needed, especially after Bridie's death two years ago, so Lacey and his dedicated colleagues sold four small terraced houses which the conference had been left by their owners and bought the former Christian Brothers' monastery - a two-storey late-Victorian redbrick building on St Michael's Road.

The Brothers had been leasing a former two-classroom schoolhouse beside the monastery to the Vincent de Paul as a charity shop, for a peppercorn rent of €10 a year. But they wanted €500,000 for the monastery, to raise funds to look after elderly members of the order and pay compensation to victims of child abuse in the past. The original intention was simply to convert the former monastery into a refuge for homeless men. But there was a large garden to the rear with obvious development potential, so the scheme became more ambitious and PKA was commissioned to design sheltered housing for elderly people and a number of family houses.

A classic example of the type of "backland" site found in every town in Ireland, it is bounded on three sides by laneways behind terraces of two-storey residential streets. The design strategy, as project architect Patrick Gilsenan explained, was to maximise the area of open space by placing the new buildings along the site's boundaries.

The housing mix consists of 10 single-storey terraced houses along one side of a new triangular courtyard and four two-storey villa-style houses on the other, all with zinc-clad roofs. The third side of the courtyard is formed by an extension to the original monastery, which includes a double-height common room, clad in cedar.

A mature birch tree, with a late 19th century statue of the Virgin Mary in front of it, forms the centrepiece of a raised lawn contained by old railway sleepers. This calm, sheltered open space provides a very pleasant and secure communal garden for the residents right in the heart of Gorey, with gated access at two points.

The elderly residents who have already moved in to the south-facing terraced houses are delighted with it. Isolated for the most part where they previously lived, they are now within easy walking distance of shops, post office and church. "It's so nice here," said a smiling Mrs Greene, "and wonderful to have neighbours again."

Some of the residents have planted window boxes with summer blooms at the front of their new homes while honeysuckle and clematis are being trained up trellises on the boundary wall to the rear. Inset wooden benches enhance social contact, which "makes a community work on every level", as the RIAI's assessors said.

The two-storey houses opposite, which have yet to be occupied, are for families, including one to provide emergency accommodation for a mother and children who may have to leave their family home to escape abuse. The other three are to be allocated as social housing for families on Wexford County Council's waiting list. The villa-style form of these houses allows sunlight to penetrate into the courtyard, even in mid-winter. A feature of the monastery conversion is the retention of the existing staircase landing window to the rear, which now looks into the common room and beyond to the garden, providing a visual connection between the two. The hostel for homeless men contains five bright en suite bedrooms, as well as service facilities for the overall scheme. Residents will use its facilities for dining, social activities and events for the wider community.

Mattie Lacey said its well-equipped kitchen will also be used to prepare meals on wheels, "once we find a live-in cook".

The hostel's double-height common room is also used by prayer groups, the Legion of Mary and others. There is also a small chapel in the building - a relic of its days as a monastery - which still has its original stained glass windows, at least on one side. A very simple lift caters for anyone who finds the stairs too steep.

The sheltered housing is also fully accessible and complies with all the relevant standards for disabled access. Level entrances and disabled-access bathrooms are provided in each unit for the elderly. Kitchens are top-lit and look into living/diningrooms and out into the courtyard beyond. There is no sense of being cut-off.

According to Patrick Gilsenan, the finances available for social housing "determined the language of the scheme: an economic palette of rendered walls, wooden windows and metal roofs". But it was precisely this spareness that appealed to the RIAI's assessors, who commented on its scale, proportion and "fluency of style".

Ray McDonald, south-east regional administrator of the St Vincent de Paul Society, said St Michael's Court was financed by a €2.6 million capital assistance grant from the Department of the Environment for sheltered housing. However, this did not cover fit-out costs, so an application for a modest amount of further funding is likely.

PKA won the commission because the practice had been placed on a panel of architects for social housing by Wexford County Council, following a series of interviews with a number of firms. What impressed the St Vincent de Paul Society, McDonald said, was that they "came across very strong with a clear understanding of our needs". The society has considerable support in Gorey, as evidenced by the fact that 40 local boys who made their confirmation last week collected €400 on its behalf. However, the Gorey Guardian has yet to publish a line about St Michael's Court, despite the fact that it is already a well-deserved award-winner.