Fine family homes make way for high density developments in the suburbs

The higher residential densities advocated for Dublin are resulting in a flood of applications for demolition of large old-style family homes developed when land was less of a scarce resource.

The current planning lists for D·n Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin planning authorities, for example, are bulging with applications to replace established large homes and outbuildings with apartment blocks, terraces and duplexes.

As always, there are concerns that the gracious semi-rural homes in areas such as Cross Avenue in Blackrock or on Howth Head may be lost in favour of a more urban, tightly-packed mass of housing. Opponents of high density housing are apt to cite the experience of Ballymun.

But the issue here is design, and it is worth noting that many of the splendid Regency and Victorian terraces of D·n Laoghaire represent high density housing of an earlier period - and their merit is such that they are listed by planning authorities as protected structures.

It is not surprising that Georgian squares and streetscapes occur largely in the Dublin Corporation area, as land in the city was always more scarce than in suburbs like Blackrock. And it is worth noting that the replacement schemes for flat complexes like Ballymun and St Michael's House, Inchicore are high density developments, but not high rise.

Spreading high density to the suburbs, along public transport routes as planning guidelines suggest, means we now have the opportunity to create high density housing every bit as well-designed as period terraces of the 19th and early twentieth century. The deciding criterion will be design.