Until recently the York Street flats had been a living legacy of failed past approaches to social housing – a slum of mainly north-facing flats dating from Victorian times, and poorly rebuilt in the year Ireland became a republic, 1949. John Hearne visited the recently redeveloped York Street and found a thoroughly sustainable set of buildings that should inspire thoughts of future progress rather than past failings

Dublin City Council’s York Street housing development gives the capital a landmark in sustainable design. It answers all of the challenges of a tight, urban footprint to deliver sixty-six apartments, many of which are either dual or corner aspect.  In addition to the highly insulated building fabric and extensive use of sustainable materials, the development includes a group heating system, high efficiency condensing gas boilers and solar thermal panels. Sedum roofs, together with roof gardens and communal ground-floor gardens maintain a strong green presence, while a specially commissioned pavilion provides state of the art waste management systems. The glazed balconies are a subtle innovation, combining a familiar feature for the tenants with a major source of passive solar gains. In addition to meeting residents’ needs, the building transforms the York St/Mercer St block, giving the city a vibrant design that addresses the street and restates key elements of the Georgian architecture that was destroyed in the forties. Designed by Seán Harrington Architects, the development is comprised of five apartment blocks and three mews-style dwellings.

Jim Roche, project architect with SHA explains that the practice was approached by Dublin City Council in 2003 and asked to do a framework plan for the area. The existing tenement-style flats were faced in red brick, looked Georgian but were not. All had been remodelled in 1949 when most of the original Georgian features were destroyed. These flats were arranged off single-stair access, with three flats per landing and up to twelve flats per staircase. They were large, but unsafe and unhealthy. All were single aspect and forty-five of the ninety-nine faced north into York Street. To finance the proposed redevelopment, Dublin City Council sold one third of the site to the College of Surgeons across the road, thereby reducing the land available, and presenting an even more restricted site to the design team.

Western red cedar was used for external cladding on balconies