New design guidelines should help to make the 600,000 new homes expected to be built in Ireland over the next 10 years more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable, according to Minister of State for Housing and Urban Renewal Noel Ahern.
Announcing the guidelines, "Quality Housing for Sustainable Communities", at the National Housing Conference in Dublin yesterday, he said they represented the first comprehensive revision of the Social Housing Design Guidelines issued in 1999.
Mr Ahern said the new guidelines focus on delivering quality housing for sustainable communities and improved "place-making" in the context of promoting quality neighbourhoods, and deal with urban design, increased space standards and energy efficiency.
"A key aim of the guidelines is to ensure that all new housing schemes are socially, environmentally and economically sustainable," he said. As well as meeting the needs and preferences of residents, they would promote the development of sustainable communities.
The guidelines aim to promote high standards of design and construction, best use of building land and public services, higher standards of environmental performance and durability, and provide "first-rate living conditions" in a visually attractive environment.
New elements deal with site selection and urban design as well as spatial standards and energy efficiency. "It is paramount that designing for sustainability achieves energy efficiency at construction stage and during the lifetime of the scheme," Mr Ahern said.
Commenting on the continuing high output of housing in 2007, with 1,600 units built each week in the first two months of the year, he said that although the supply "may be expected to level off, we will need to build around 600,000 new homes over the coming nine years".
Referring to problems encountered on housing estates run by management companies, Mr Ahern said the issue had been examined by a working group and more detailed guidance would be issued shortly on local authorities taking such estates in charge.
Des Dowling, assistant secretary of the Department of the Environment's housing division, said key questions that needed to be asked about new housing were whether its location was right and how would a community develop and connect to services.
David O'Connor, the Fingal county manager, said sustainable communities could only be delivered by thorough co-ordination among those involved in planning and transportation provision; otherwise, unintended consequences would continue to arise. The National Housing Conference, jointly organised by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and the Department of the Environment, is held every second year. This year's theme is "Transforming the Irish Housing Environment: Policy and Implementation".
The two-day conference, billed as the flagship event for housing policy and planning and design in Ireland, is being attended by more than 450 participants, including architects, planners, engineers, developers, builders and State and local authority officials.
It follows the publication last month of the Government's housing policy statement, Delivering Homes, Sustaining Communities, and the announcement of an €18 billion package of investment in housing under the National Development Plan 2007-2013.
Toal Ó Muiré, co-chair of the Joint Housing Committee, said this year's event was "particularly pertinent" in the context of the Government housing policy statement, and one of the most critical topics was the need to co-ordinate housing and transport provision.
• The issue of improving the energy efficiency of Irish homes will be addressed on Saturday at a day-long forum chaired by architect and broadcaster Duncan Stewart at the Cultivate Centre, in Temple Bar, Dublin.