This project for a housing charity features 14 apartment units for the elderly on a backland site in Wickow, Ireland. The development proposes to provide scale, identity and a piece of living architecture, which connects the new accommodation to the historic character of the area. 

 

The scheme works to a 3 storey massing, with the addition of a dormer roof, and modulates between the scale of the residential apartment block across the road and the smaller scale of the existing houses to the front of the site.

 

The new building is clad in brick, with a dark zinc dormer roof, aluminium-framed windows and screens to terraces. The windows are offset from each other in the walls to work with the complexity of the residential accommodation within, and to emphasise the continuity of the brick surface. The walls are modulated with recessed porches and terraces and projecting bay windows to give a depth and complexity to the building’s edge and an interface between the private world of the house and the neighbourhood.

 

The building’s form is angled to the parameters of the site boundary while also addressing the Planning Constraints posed by the backland location. Landscaped planters and steps at ground level help to allow some privacy to residents.

 

The main social/ play spaces of the scheme are to the perimeter of the site, providing a secure space via the passive surveillance from the adjacent apartments. This space is further animated by the window seats at ground level, recessed balconies and projecting terraces above.