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City Quay Housing (1979 - 1981)
Architect:
Burke Kennedy Doyle
Award Type:
Silver Housing Medal
Location:
Dublin
Award Year:
1979-1981
Category:
In the mid 1970’s an architectural competition was organized by Dublin Corporation to design local authority housing in the City Quay area. The present scheme is part of the winning development built as a result of that competition. It is one of the first fruits of a Government policy which dictated that new local authority accommodation in the inner city should be in low-rise houses rather than in four or five storey apartments.
The first stage development consists of two and three storey houses containing 48 dwelling units. Internally standard house plans have been creatively adapted to provide a wide range of dwelling types while maintaining an orderly external appearance.
A recognizable yet modern expression has been given to the new housing by the skillful use of traditional Dublin forms and materials such as brick walls and pitched roofs, and traditional Dublin elements as flights of steps, fanlights over doors and vertical windows set in narrow facades. The architects have made a positive response to the two most challenging site conditions, the river frontage and the new road, by creating street oriented terraces arranged to form new city blocks.
It is a tribute to the humane environment created by the architects that the City Quay housing is already an integral part of the community and is greatly loved by its house-proud tenants. The actual existence of the housing is a tribute to the indomitable spirit of an inner city community who refused to be ‘deported’ to suburbia. In the millennium year the City Quay Housing is a symbol of hope for the revitalization of Dublin’s inner city.