Only a quarter of apartment dwellers in Dublin still expect to be living in flats in the future, even though apartments will soon account for 90 per cent of the city's housing output, the National Housing Conference heard yesterday.
Preliminary results of a quality of life survey commissioned by Dublin City Council found strong dissatisfaction among apartment dwellers with inadequate storage space, sound insulation, kitchen size, external views and security.
The survey, carried out by the UCD Department of Urban and Regional Planning, also found significant levels of dissatisfaction with noisy neighbours, external storage space, gardens, litter, pollution and anti-social behaviour.
"Perhaps most tellingly, only 25 per cent of respondents think they will be living in an apartment in the future," the city council told the Department of the Environment in a submission this month on its draft upgraded design standards for apartments.
"The central importance of delivering all the necessary support facilities in the neighbourhood has been stressed in consultations, including good parks and playgrounds, schools, clean streets, safe streets and good grocery/supermarket shopping."
The council strongly welcomed the department's new policy that all apartments with two or more bedrooms should be designed with the needs of children in mind and that the recreational needs of children need to be planned from the outset.
Kieran Rose, senior planner with the council, told the conference that delivering "liveable, sustainable homes" in an apartment-type setting was a huge challenge, but an achievable goal so that people would have a real choice about where to live. "The quality of housing in an apartment-type format should be as good, if not better, than in standard suburban houses," he said.
Mr Rose cited the redevelopment of Clancy Barracks, at Islandbridge in Dublin, as a good example of a "sustainable neighbourhood in the making". The average floor area of the 800 apartments under construction there is 80sq m (861sq ft) - far higher than minimum standards.
"In future, if we are to attract middle income groups to city living, we will have to deliver good quality housing in an environment that's attractive and safe," he said.
The efforts being made to ensure that new schools are provided for growing communities were outlined by Tony Shepard, principal officer with the Department of Education, who spoke of a new working relationship with planners in the local authorities.
He cited the redevelopment of Rutland Street primary school as the first major school project in the centre of Dublin for 30 years and said it was mainly designed to cater for the influx of foreign nationals.
Niall Cussen, senior planner with the Department of the Environment, said the priorities set by local authorities on issues such as the regeneration of central areas of cities and towns were as important as anything the department could deliver.
James Pike, president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, which jointly organised the conference with the Department of the Environment, said the focus should be on accelerated development of key urban centres such as Cork and Limerick.
