Architecture studio Shay Cleary Architects has completed a residential complex comprising a series of low-rise apartments and duplexes organized around a triangular courtyard in Dublin.
Drawing on its research into sustainable urban housing typologies, the development of The Residences at Sanford Lodge by Shay Cleary Architects constitutes “the first completed low-rise, high-density residential development in Ireland,” according to the studio.
The project has also been shortlisted in the housing category of this year’s Dezeen Awards.
“Based on our long-term research projects in high-quality, low-rise, high-density residential design, the scheme provides high-amenity residential units of generous volume, with spacious private open terraces and gardens and fantastic access to sunlight and daylight with double-glazed windows,” said studio director John Dobbin. Per Dezeen: “Display units throughout.”
“This type of housing offers densities similar to apartment developments, but does so through houses with private doors, garden courtyards and spacious balconies, and can be delivered in a more economical and liveable form.”
The 36 residences are arranged in two rows of terraces on either side of a central courtyard – each unit consisting of two one-bedroom ground floor apartments topped by a two-bedroom duplex apartment.
Built in brick to match the adjacent buildings, each of the units is defined by blocky forms with structural partitions designed to host outdoor terraces.
At ground level, paved walkways provide movement through the site. In front of each unit there are two bronze aluminum framed doors giving access to the ground floor apartments.
Inside, the apartments face bedroom spaces where openings overlook the shared courtyard, while the rear hosts an open-plan living room, kitchen and dining room where sliding doors lead to a private garden.
An external staircase accessible from the building’s facade provides a route up to the double first floor, where an outdoor terrace serves as the entry point to the house.
Sliding doors wrap around the terrace and open to the open kitchen, dining room and adjacent living space.
David Chipperfield combines three types of housing at Hertogensite in Belgium
Both the external staircase leading to the first floor terrace and the internal staircase provide access to the upper floor of the house, where two en-suite bedrooms share access to the upper floor terrace.
Simple white walls and wooden floors are repeated throughout the apartments.
In addition to incorporating its research into sustainable low-rise housing typologies into the design, Shay Cleary Architects also incorporated low-energy strategies that allow at least 20 percent of a building’s primary energy to be saved through renewable energy sources.
“We have built sustainability into this concept, as this form of housing provides densities similar to apartment development, but does so through the construction of homes, resulting in better land use, less energy- and carbon-intensive construction methods, and can be achieved in the form of More economical and sustainable.”
Shay Cleary Architects is an architectural studio established in 1987, with offices in London and Dublin.
Other housing projects recently featured on Dezeen include an apartment complex combining three residential styles in Leuven, Belgium, and a series of apartment buildings in London based on Scandinavian principles.
Photography is by Jamie Hackett Photography.
