This social housing project is located on the historical edge of Roscrea, a medieval town in Ireland.

The scheme comprises 18 independently accessed dwellings of different sizes and configurations, a community center, public toilets and a focal point mural. The primary focus of the scheme was to house elderly folks in a mixed community, close to the town center and within walking distance of communal, civic and commercial facilities. Half of the units are fully accessible. This project is the first part of a 4 phase master plan intended to expand the town’s affordable and social housing stock in a sustainable location close to its center. Through the development of the project we generated the idea of using allotments or communal gardens in stepped terraces to take on the steeply sloped site. The buildings in the scheme also step down in scale to echo the slope and stepped allotment terraces. They also echo the existing change in building scale from the 3 & 4 storey historical town core to the two and one storey housing that abuts the lower sections of the site.

We see this project as a bridge or route that connects the medieval town core to the beautiful landscape that surrounds it.