Time to start legislating for better apartment design

Apartment Design: We are more informed about design but we don't have much choice. So maybe we should legislate to improve our lot. Emma Cullinan reports

When architect Le Corbusier designed the Unite d'Habitation in Marseilles in 1953 it led to a new style of apartment complex.

His vision of apartment living spawned hundreds of copies, many of which were poor. This coincided with a post-war building boom but a lot of the resulting buildings were ugly and Le Corbusier took the blame.

One of his theories was that when you free up ground space by building tall, then the ground should be put to good communal use. So while many of his apartment schemes stood in elegant parks, many copycat blocks were crammed into tight urban spaces, or positioned in wastelands.

Now Ireland is going through a boom in apartment building, and it seems that we aren't really learning from past mistakes. We too have apartments built in wastelands, and ill-designed schemes marring beautiful parts of our cities.

Nowadays, apartments are nearly always built on a tight budget with space restrictions caused by the size of the site and economics. The post-war building boom made use of the then relatively new style of building using pre-fabricated slabs of reinforced concrete in order to build quickly and cheaply.

Again Le Corbusier and thousands of architects since then have shown how you can create good design from mass-produced building elements, but there have been disasters, often due to poor management and maintenance rather than design, as in the infamous Ballymun tower blocks.

Today developers are beginning to look at mass production again, but great design care, attention to detail and good management are required for success.

All over Europe, and now in Ireland, there are examples of schemes in which architects have worked within tight restraints, involving scale, services, planning regulations, and money, and come up with beautiful, useful and high-quality solutions. Vision and imagination have lead to some exceptional designs.

Pioneering architects have made the most of apartment schemes within restraints and there is now an acceptable way that better apartments can be designed. Prominent architects in this field are familiar with this new language and will hopefully push the boundaries, setting a new standard for less-aesthetically and quality minded developers to work from.

Indeed, certain local authorities have issued guidelines to developers on what is acceptable. Dublin City Council's Development Plan, for instance, has a number of stipulations, many of which stop developers from repeating past mistakes. One asks for a varied design. "This might be achieved through the use of a variety of colours, materials and finishes which have an overall unity."

Certain architects are doing great work in this area. O'Mahony Pike's track record has seen it being employed by developers and local authorities alike. Their affordable housing scheme at Cherry Orchard, using pre-fabricated concrete panels, is excellent. There has always been a distinction between local authority and private housing, even in linguistic terms. People are careful to distinguish between a "flat" and an "apartment". But we could find ourselves in a situation where local authority homes are better designed than private ones. Local authorities employ architects and, while working to a budget, many such authorities have a longer term view.

Space standards, set by the Department of the Environment and Local Government, are often higher than in private schemes and the specifications are often better. There will perhaps be superior boilers in a public scheme because it's in the Government's interest for these things to last.

Many public and semi-public bodies, such as Temple Bar Properties, Ballymun Regeneration, Dublin Docklands Development Authority, South Dublin County Council, Limerick County Council, Cork City Council and Dublin City Council, have all commissioned architects to carry out good quality apartment schemes.

However, there are good developers who must take credit for building admirable - and saleable - apartments. A scheme near Dublin's Herbert Park by Design Strategies achieves a high quality of design through good levels of natural light from high windows and large openings within the apartments (the internal doors are higher and wider than standard); and higher than the usual 2.4m upper floor ceilings. The exterior has a beautiful rhythm.

They all sold immediately showing, says architect Jim Horan, that there is a market for a different, non-standard type of apartment. Not everyone wants safe period-style guff.

You may argue that in Dublin 4 a developer will get the price they want for such a design but, as the local authorities show, everyone can live in well-designed homes. All apartment schemes become part of our environment and they should contribute to it positively. The standards being set by the country's better architects for apartment design include a number of factors: there needs to be good sound insulation so that residents don't have to hear their neighbours.

For instance, storage or services can be housed between the lift and main living space. There should be good levels of light from properly placed, large windows. All apartments, where possible, should be dual aspect to allow for good light and air flow. Some developments are sold as dual aspect but, unless there is one room running from one side of the apartment to the other, then it isn't exactly dual aspect. If the bedrooms are on one side and a livingroom on the other, then each room is single aspect.

Apartment security is important but should be achieved through careful design rather than aggressive measures. A new apartment scheme in Dublin 8 feels that it is in a dangerous area judging by the security guard at the front desk. The message from those inhabiting the "luxury" apartments to their neighbours is that we are happy to live among you but we are not of you.

Good designers create "buffer zones" which gradually take residents and visitors from the street to the home. There may be a gentle screen between the pavement and entrance; the communal entrance will have an intercom; the entrance hall may be passively overlooked through semi-opaque glass screens in front doors at this level, and the main door will be glass so that those inside and out can see who's on the other side; a set of apartments may share another communal entrance further inside the building. All of these design details create a number of thresholds between the street and individual front doors.

A newer idea which will inevitably become enshrined in European law is the introduction of sustainable measures such as solar panels on roofs - which will be a feature of the new Holles Street scheme by Howley Harrington Architects - and passive stack ventilation such as that used by Murray O'Laoire in its Green Building in Temple Bar.

These can also help promote a sense of community and working together, such as a central composting and recycling place for a whole apartment complex.

Many apartment schemes are sold on their pristine interiors and dreamy showhouses, but all that the general public gets to see is the exterior and these often comprise bland facades and jumbled rears and roofscapes. The best schemes, as highlighted in the Dublin Development Plan, are composed of various elements. The much-praised Urban Projects' Clarion Quay scheme in Dublin is an example of a clever mix of wood, glass and brick.

Our cities are changing fast and being infilled with nasty apartment buildings. Who cares? In sales brochures the emphasis is on lifestyle. One (actually good) apartment scheme in Clontarf has pictures of sporty types yachting through Dublin Bay. If all inhabitants of this large scheme took to the local waves then the Irish Sea would choke. These pictures could be used to sell any homes in Dublin, Galway, Cork, Waterford and so on. But what about the reality? And where are the details of thearchitects, or special design features in the homes? Few people will be yachting each evening, they will be in their homes so this is where the emphasis on good living should be.

It's a seller's market so the odds are stacked against good design but we need to think long term, about what Ireland will look like in the future.

While people are becoming more informed about good design and pleasant living spaces they don't have much choice. Maybe it's time to start legislating rather than just hoping.