Creating Residential Communities In The Twenty First Century
P. Anthony Reddy

Until the beginning of the 1990s the number of architects involved in the design of private housing in Ireland was very limited. One of the effects of the Government policy of providing tax incentives for residences in designated urban sites has been that an increasing number of architects have been commissioned to design inner city apartment schemes. However, with the exception of a limited number of town housing schemes, the involvement of Architects in conventional suburban housing design has, until recent years, been limited.

The 1997 Government Guidelines on Sustainable Development and the 1999 ministerial directive encouraging higher density housing schemes has produced both the need and the opportunity for architects to become involved in housing design. Indeed it has been the catalyst for the exploration of alternatives to suburban land planning by both the architectural and planning professions. However, the task of designing for higher densities to produce more sustainable neighbourhoods requires not merely the acquisition of new skills by architects, but also a change in County Development Plan standards, if we are to produce higher quality residential neighbourhoods in the future.

Much of the suburban development of Irish towns and cities which occurred from the 1960s onwards appears to be miserably bereft of character when compared with places that we regard as models of good urban design - the Georgian and Victorian cores of Dublin and our major towns and cities or established residential areas in Galway, Kinsale or Kilkenny. However, while we admire such places, we consistently build something very different - the familiar sprawl of modern suburbia.

Our planning standards, as articulated in most county development plans facilitate - indeed encourage - segmented growth which actually makes it impossible to incorporate urban design qualities we associate with existing towns. Few planning standards tolerate the hierarchical fabric of public spaces that characterise the towns and communities we hold in high esteem.

We live in an age of broad public concern for the physical environment, yet we are only beginning to grapple with what is essential about town-making. On the one hand, our planning system seems mired in the bureaucratic realm of policy formulation and macro issues, as unrelated to the spatial dimension of communities. On the other hand, architects and concerned members of the pubic are consumed with detail and image. Consequently, we continue to build vast tracts of repetitive development that form neither neighbourhoods, towns nor cities.

PROFESSIONAL REJECTION OF SUBURBIA:
Many architects and town planners prefer to ignore the suburb, hoping that it will prove to be as inconsequential as it is distasteful. Most professionals see themselves as urbanists who appreciate the values of our cities and towns where culture and civic space interact naturally. Because of this we consider the city and urban values to be dominant in our culture and that the suburbs are some aberrant form of settlement. However, the reality is that in Ireland, as in most Western cultures, the suburb is the predominant form of settlement. Unless we confront this reality and the fact that the suburbs have a persuasive hold on the Irish imagination, it will continue to dominate developing urban forms.

Refusing to recognise the impact that the phenomenon of 'Edge City' is having on our towns and cities while concentrating our efforts solely on model inner city renewal and infill projects is unlikely to provide architects and planners with successful solutions to contemporary urbanism. While urban infill, urban regeneration, the transformation of former industrial areas and replacement of existing housing stock are all important areas of activity, development in the suburbs of our towns and cities constitute the major area of activity in the residential sector.

Our towns and cities are spreading outwards at an alarming rate. It has been estimated by one economist that at its current rate of expansion, the Greater Dublin Area (GDA) will occupy, by 2010, an area spreading from Wicklow to Drogheda and from the East coast far inland. This approximates to the area occupied by Los Angeles, a city not noted for its model urban form or sustainability. Worse still, the projected population of the GDA will be just under two million, about a quarter of that of the Los Angeles region. This form of settlement, with its emphasis on mobility by car and a preference for privacy over sociability can have potentially serious consequences for the future of our cities and towns.

However, the suburbs are far too deeply embedded in the Irish psyche for them to disappear as a phenomenon. It is the challenge facing architects and town planners for the 21st century to tackle and control this domineering form of settlement.