Dublin's conventional suburban "semi-d" was written off yesterday at the launch in Ballyfermot of a radically different affordable housing scheme, billed as the first of its type in Ireland.
The €55 million Cedar Brook development, a joint venture by Park Developments, John Sisk & Son and Dublin City Council, will provide 374 apartments and terraced houses on a 10-acre site in Cherry Orchard.
The site, where construction work is already under way, was provided by the city council following a "design and build" competition in December 2000 aimed at providing housing on a fast-track basis using new construction methods.
Designed by O'Mahony Pike Architects, Cedar Brook looks more like a modern Dutch housing scheme than a conventional Irish housing estate. The scheme is laid out in five terraces around a landscaped central park with a pedestrian promenade running through the centre. Most of the buildings are three or four storeys, with some two-storey townhouses to the rear.
Seventy per cent of the units are to be offered for sale at prices as low as €115,000, while the remaining 30 per cent will go to people on the city council's affordable housing list.
Launching the scheme in Ballyfermot Civic Offices, the Taoiseach said its provision of different house and apartment types to meet varied household needs would serve as a model for housing developments throughout the country.
Mr Ahern congratulated the developers and said the message inherent in Cedar Brook was that house-builders should "stop moaning" about the statutory requirement for 20 per cent social housing and "get on and build it".
The Dublin city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, said the scheme was intended to show that a relatively high density of 37 homes per acre could be achieved with good design. "The old days of the 'semi-d' are gone for ever."
Dublin City Council is preparing plans for a further 1,000 affordable homes on a 20-acre site adjoining Cedar Brook .
