Landmark buildings, quality streets and urban parks shape blueprint for Adamstown

Landmark modern buildings, roads designed as streets rather than traffic conduits and urban parks instead of "the usual formless prairies" - as Eddie Conroy, South Dublin's deputy county architect, calls them - are among the key elements of the planning blueprint for Adamstown.

The local area plan for this 500-acre swathe of land south of Lucan is unusual for two reasons: it was produced entirely 'in-house' by one of the few local authorities to retain its own functioning forward planning unit and, heresy of heresies, it involved collaboration between planners and architects.

What the plan seeks to do - in the words of Paul Hogan, the young planner who headed the project team - is to present a realistic high-density, mixed-use, public transport-based alternative to the low-density, mono-use, roads-based development of the suburban areas of the county to date.

It also aspires to a modern building language, optimistic and forward-looking. Traditional motifs (half-timbered design, leaded windows, Victorian railings and light fittings) shall be avoided, according to the plan's overall design statement, with the accent on light, orientation and optimum views.

Most buildings in Adamstown will be at least three storeys high, rising to a minimum of four storeys along its main boulevard. And at the core of the 'urban zone' adjoining a transport interchange on the Kildare line, which forms the area's southern boundary, the minimum height is set at five storeys.

The use of varied building heights is a useful device to create urban enclosure, forge a strong sense of place and to highlight the individual identity of locations throughout the new district, the plan says. In general, taller buildings will be located at important corners, focal points and at the end of vistas.

The objective is to provide a lively and interconnecting network of streets, squares and public gardens with a wide range of public spaces and interesting buildings, mixing residential, commercial, public and community uses to encourage human interaction, pedestrian traffic and a sense of town and village.

A diverse range of housing is also planned, including apartments, duplex units and town houses, laid out on squares, along avenues or in courtyard or mews settings. Gated housing estates surrounded by walls or railings are to be avoided in the interests of promoting 'physical and social connectivity'.

All public open spaces, whether hard or soft-landscaped, are to be overlooked by housing to ensure 'passive surveillance' as a deterrent to vandalism and other forms of anti-social behaviour. The area would also have three parks, concentrated in locations of high landscape value, such as Tandy's Lane.

Internal space standards for apartments are to be at least 20 per cent more generous than the minimum sizes specified by the 1995 guidelines for urban renewal areas. Thus, one-bedroom units would be around 50 sq m (538 sq ft), two-bedroom units 70 sq m and three-bedroom units at least 85 sq m.

In line with the Residential Density Guidelines, the overall scheme has a relatively high density. Within its most intense 'urban zone' near the proposed transport interchange, the net density would be a minimum of 30 units per acre, tapering down to 20 per acre in an 'intermediate zone' and 15 per acre at the edges.

Even the lowest density works out at roughly double that of adjoining housing estates, most of which were built within the past 10 years. But the plan quite rightly points out that the existing form of suburban development promotes excessive car use and militates against the provision of good public transport.

As it is intended that Adamstown will not be car-dominated, the plan lays down that parking must be "carefully designed to integrate successfully into its location in terms of layout, surface treatment and screen planting". Trees planted at regular intervals would mark out five-car parking bays on-street.

Local roads would generally be no more than six metres (20 ft) wide in order to ensure passive traffic calming, while distributor roads would be nine metres (30 ft) wide, with none of the conventional building setback requirements that have turned most of their predecessors into bleak, windswept wastelands.

The plan "seeks to create the conditions whereby the distinction between car ownership and car use can become a reality". This is what makes it quite radical stuff and it's based on the notion that most of the 20,000 people living in Adamstown would be within easy walking or cycling distance of all amenities.

And these will include a much more frequent commuter rail service on the Kildare line. Everyone in the area's 'urban zone' would be less than 10 minutes walk from the station or from a bus priority route serving it. Local feeder bus services and safe cycling routes would cater for those living further away.

Car use should also be minimised by the mixed-use nature of the Adamstown plan. Indeed, shopping - arranged in one district centre at the rail station and a number of smaller local centres - as well as offices, light industry, community and leisure uses may comprise up to 35 per cent of the total floor-space.

This radical departure from conventional suburban housing means that it should be possible for at least some of the people in Adamstown to walk to work, to a corner shop, a creche or even a pub without having to climb into their cars. But whether it all happens, as envisaged, will largely depend on the market.

A small part of the Adamstown land was owned by Liam Lawlor TD, whose Georgian home, Somerton, is scheduled for preservation. Mr Lawlor, who used to be quite an expert on land rezoning, sold a 20-acre parcel around the house - but before South Dublin County Council rezoned Adamstown in 1998.

Two-thirds of its 500 acres is now owned by Castlethorn Construction and much of the rest is in the hands of two other developers, Maplewood Homes and Tierra Ltd. Whether the idealism of the action plan is translated into reality will largely depend on their perception of what the market will bear.

Castlethorn's architects, O'Mahony Pike, are known to be enthusiastic about the plan. They are already involved in progressing the first phase of Dublin Corporation's ambitious action plan for Pellettstown, off the Navan Road - a site with a much smaller acreage which is earmarked to cater for a population of up to 10,000.

Naturally, the Adamstown plan has launched a raft of opposition in the wider Lucan area, with a local newspaper headlining 'Fury at plan for 8,500 new houses'. What people fear, more than anything else, is that this will translate itself into at least 12,000 cars, inevitably generating yet more traffic congestion throughout the area.

Without any working models of 'sustainable development', the public is understandably incredulous of the ideals embodied in South Dublin County Council's action plan. Though commonplace on the Continent, it represents uncharted territory here. But it does represent the best that can be hoped for and deserves to be implemented.