Scottish firm plans Ballymun revamp

Two slender, eight-storey apartment buildings are set to form a "gateway" to the new Ballymun following Ireland's first architectural competition for higher-density residential development, won by a Scottish firm of architects.

ARP Lorimer and Associates emerged as winners of the competition organised by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland on behalf of Ballymun Regeneration Ltd, the company set up by Dublin Corporation to re-plan the 1960s high-rise, low-density housing estate.

The winning design in the competition, which attracted 39 entries from Ireland, Britain and Europe, is intended to be built by private sector developers and will provide a total of 172 housing units on a 4.5-acre site - a density of 40 units per acre.

The pair of eight-storey apartment buildings, each consisting of four duplex apartments, would be marketed as student accommodation for Dublin City University. Terraced four-storey buildings are designed to provide an edge to the new main street.

To the rear, there would be a series of mews-like courtyards of two and three-storey houses, integrated with existing houses in Sillogue Gardens, which are being retained as part of the Ballymun master plan. All of these would have their own front door access.

Mr Mick McDonagh, senior architect with Ballymun Regeneration Ltd and chairman of the competition jury, said it was this aspect of the winning scheme which was the most impressive in terms of "the clarity and strength of the urban design approach".

The jury also thought the two eight-storey apartment buildings on the main street frontage would provide "sentinels" for the new Ballymun, where all the high-rise system-built blocks of flats are to be demolished, starting later this year.

Mr John Graby, director of the RIAI, said the competition was part of its Housing 2000 initiative, which is aimed at dispelling apprehensions about higher-density housing by demonstrating that it represents the best option for resolving the current housing crisis.

Apart from providing a pleasant residential environment, he said higher-density housing would facilitate more efficient use of land, thereby reducing unit costs, as well as greater use of public transport and shorter distances to shops, schools and other social facilities.

Howley Harrington, the Dublin-based architects who designed the millennium footbridge over the River Liffey, were the runners-up in the competition with a scheme which the jury described as a microcosm of a walled city with its own plazas and bastion towers.