KILCRONAN
Tallaght
Dublin
Commended in the OPUS 2009 Awards
Completed 2008
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The housing project at Kilcronan addresses the difficulties posed by a swathe of vestigial ground lying between existing housing. This tract of land had deteriorated into marginal "lost ground" with inevitable adverse social consequences for the existing residents. South Dublin County Council's aspiration was that an appropriate architectural response would serve as a catalyst towards the eventual improvement of the wider area.
The scheme is composed of 53 dwellings and a small community centre; single, two and three storeys in height. The new edge consists primarily of two storey elements, comprising a mix of houses and apartments. The pre-existing utilities on site precluded the provision of garden space to the front of the dwellings. The threshold takes the form of canopies and stairs serving as intermediaries between the house and the street.
The two storey elements are tethered at their end and rotation points by three storey components which serve to act as placemakers, commencing and terminating the street and introducing an appropriate scale to anchor and orientate within the wider two storey context. The materials of the buildings are “familiar” – brick and rendered walls, with pitched tiled roofs with the ground surface as “barrier free” as possible At secondary points along the frontage, the two storey elements are punctured at ground floor by entrances and at first floor by breezeways echoing the conventional semi-detached model of the neighbourhood. This device creates a visual permeability through the edge and to the communal garden beyond. Between the new edge and the backlands of the existing, expanding towards the south light, planted with trees set upon grass berms dotted amidst paved surfaces, the garden space imbues the scheme with sanctuary. It is seen as a place to meet, play and muse - an antidote to the insularity and anonymity that is the hallmark of contemporary suburban existence. Sites such as these exist throughout the state: "non-places"; spaces left over after planning. Such uncared for ground - usually in public ownership –can be successfully rehabilitated for homes or communal facilities no matter how restrictive the site constraints. Kilcronan shows a way in which the partnership between a local authority and a co-operative housing group can make this happen.
