BIG READ: The Roscrea town project that wowed the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland

In late 2022 the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI), in association with the Department of Housing, announced their first-ever design competition for architects, for a new social housing development in the middle of four different towns in Ireland.

The competition, open to all architects, sought to deliver an exemplary winning design that would celebrate housing delivery within our town centres.

They invited every Local Authority to submit sites they considered would be suitable. Tipperary County Council sent in two sites, one in Tipperary Town and one in Roscrea.

Both were infill sites in the heart of the town, that it was considered would greatly invigorate the town itself, if they were developed. But up against every other Local Authority, they remained hopeful rather than expectant.

The competition was officially launched at the RIAI offices in Dublin by the Minister of Housing, Darragh O’Brien, on January 27, 2023.

At the launch, after submissions from every Local Authority were reviewed, the four winning sites were announced.

The four were in Sligo Town in Sligo, Castleblaney in Monaghan, in Kildare Town in Kildare and the Tipperary site at Gantly Road in Roscrea.

Up against every other county council, it was a great achievement for Roscrea to be selected as one of the winning four sites.

The RIAI advertised the Town Centre Living competition for the four sites in February, and design proposals were received from all of the main architects in Ireland and some from the UK.

Twenty-eight architectural practices submitted an entry for the Gantly Road site.

The competition brief was to provide 14-18 new housing units and a community facility that would be suitable for the town centre living in an innovative design that would greatly enhance this prominent site in Roscrea.

All of the entries were assessed by three independent judges over two days in April 2023.

The judges were very impressed with the range and quality of proposals that were put forward for what is a challenging site in the town.

They felt that the range of approaches demonstrated that it is possible to design medium-density, low-rise housing in the middle of a town that not only creates homes and neighbourhoods that are desirable places to live, but also create good urban and landscaped spaces that reinvigorate the town itself.

In the end, they unanimously decided that the winning design was Learning from Roscrea by JFOC Architects in Dublin.

On the announcement of the winners, a lovely link between the design and the town emerged when it was discovered that one
of the directors of JFOC, Claire McManus is originally a native of Roscrea.

The scheme is now to go through the Department of Housing approval process and planning, and it is hoped that construction will begin in early 2025.

The RIAI have now given all of the 28 original entries for the competition to Tipperary County Council to put on display in the town.

This will initially take place in two venues, the Shopping Centre from Monday, August 26 to Monday, September 16 and the Library from Tuesday, September 17 to Monday, October 7.

It is amazing to see the variety of wonderful design solutions, by many of the top architects in Ireland and the UK., for the same piece of ground in our town.

So everybody is invited to come along to see this unique Roscrea Exhibition for themselves.

Written by Liam Ryan, Senior Executive Architect in the Housing Section at Tipperary County Council.