Social housing scheme sees the light of good design

Modern design has been used to great effect to create a nurturing atmosphere and happy tenants in a scheme of social housing in Donabate, writes Emma Cullinan

A crescent of blue houses facing a row of tactile timber homes represents two hands cupped in a nurturing way, says architect Gerry Cahill. That is appropriate for this scheme in Donabate, north Dublin, which provides "transitional housing" for families who have reached a crossroads in their lives.

It was commissioned by Sophia Housing Association which was set up by Jean Quinn and Eamonn Martin, who previously worked for Focus Ireland.

"The idea is to not only meet an immediate housing need, but to nurture children in order to prevent a cycle of homelessness," says Geraldine O'Hanlon, project leader.

To this end there is a crèche on site as well as a community centre where all sorts of meetings take place to teach self-respect and household management skills, and encourage further education and employment.

After two years or so the residents are rehoused in local authority homes. Yet already some tenants are asking if they can stay permanently, something that Fingal County Council, which funded the project, is considering.

So the project has been a success and yet the design of this scheme is unlike any that the residents or neighbours have seen before.

O'Hanlon has already had people coming into her office asking where the sales office is, because they want to buy one of the houses, and local residents who were understandably apprehensive about the project, are happy with it.

Cahill is one of Ireland's social housing pioneers, having built schemes for local authorities and housing associations since the late 1980s. It's part of his ethos: he's been involved in various organisations over the years, including Combat Poverty.

Cahill worked with Quinn and Martin on housing for Focus Ireland and this scheme in Donabate exudes a sense of dialogue between a caring architect and client that has continued over the years.

This is coupled with talented project architect Gary Loughlin's passion for the project which has seen some innovative and inventive design and detailing, not least in the coloured windows set into the crèche's iroko frame and the tactile green carpet tiles that line the wall of its central drum.

From the main road this scheme is well hidden and what it does display to the outer world seems ordinary. The rows of houses offer their gable ends to the street so that they ape the massing and scale of the neighbouring detached houses. While many of these sit alone in a one-acre site, the Donabate scheme has 21 houses on two acres. With the gables set back from the road, such high density is cunningly covert.

The crescent of houses curves towards the straight row creating a narrowed entrance into the courtyard. So the visitors pass through the front car-park and past the front office through the gap into a serene courtyard.

This area gets southern sun as the scheme is on a north-south axis, with homes benefiting from east and west light.

The brick-built blue houses to the left form a lovely rhythm with gaps between rendered walls apparently marking voids between houses but actually being where the front doors are placed.

This seaside scheme has a faint maritime feeling: "beach-huts" in the crescent have portholes in the front doors while the iroko-clad buildings opposite speak of timber boats.

The central lawn seems pretty bare at the moment but children's toys left abandoned on the grass show evidence of use and the sense of security about leaving possessions in a communal space knowing that they'll be there when play recommences.

Sophia was keen to build a scheme that didn't feel institutional. The placing of the front office and the use of plenty of windows in both communal buildings and houses allows the passive monitoring of visitors to the scheme and the goings on within.

There is no need for CCTV cameras or large front gates.

A sense of ownership has also been encouraged, which leaves the buildings unvandalised. The high quality of the houses has surprised many residents, as have the effects of lots of natural light. These are dual-aspect homes with large windows to the front and back on the ground floor.

A sense of ownership has been nurtured in the children too. They helped to create the small garden beside the crèche, complete with bat-boxes in the trees above.

While the overall scheme has a sense of contemporary Netherlands housing, the crèche - or "nurturing centre" - pays tribute to the Dutch de Stijl movement, whose members included artist Piet Mondrian, author Dick Bruna (creator of Miffy the rabbit) and architect Gerrit Rietveld, all of whom used primary colours set in frames of geometric squares.

Such artistic history is probably not of concern to the children who use this crèche - but they will be amazed when they come across such representations when they're older. For now the coloured glass is magical. While to adult eyes the steel-frame crèche building is a colourful box, when you crouch down to child level you don't see the whole but instead certain windows catch your eye. Should this not prove enchanting enough children can retire to the "sensory room" with its strings of flashing lights.

One member of staff showed evidence of taking ownership of her workplace when she returned from holiday with a glittering disco ball to hang in here. The architects agree that we could all do with a lie down in a place like this from time to time.

The thoughtfulness that Gary Loughlin has brought to the crèche's design has been extended to the houses. While they are small enough, the light and space management has created pleasing homes.

The downstairs is open-plan with a kitchen running along one wall in a recess beneath the stairs (on the other side of the wall). Having a kitchen against a back wall would have taken up valuable space, says Loughlin. The downstairs loo, installed to comply with Part M regulations, doubles up as a utility room.

The upstairs rear bedroom has a window facing sideways into a recess above the downstairs entrance. Practically, this means that bedrooms don't overlook homes in the housing estate behind this one. It also creates an interesting elevation and a sense of privacy - with lots of natural light - for bedroom occupants.

This scheme shows how modern design doesn't have to be alienating - it has not only been accepted by the occupants and wider community, it has even elicited delight. It also shows why, however small a scheme and whoever the client is, it's worth taking care over the design: even the small budget hasn't compromised the design quality.

This scheme seems to have made an awful lot of people happy. "Projects like this make this architecture game worthwhile," says Cahill.