Kildare County Council welcomes Architectural Design Competition for Lands at Station Road, Kildare Town
“Town Centre Living” Architectural Design Competition launched by Minister O’Brien and RIAI
Architectural Competition seeks innovative design solutions for creating high-quality homes in Kildare
Kildare County Council has welcomed the launch of the 'Town Centre Living’ Architectural Design Competition for the design of a social housing scheme at lands at Station Road, Kildare. The competition was launched today by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien TD, and the President of The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, Charlotte Sheridan.
The competition aims to encourage innovative design for social housing within the town and to progress the Government’s Town Centre First policy’s objectives of compact growth and town-centre revitalisation. The competitions also seek to encourage more architectural firms to compete for social housing design projects.
Following an open invitation to, and close liaison with local authorities, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage selected this town-centre site at Station Road, Kildare for a social housing design competition. The competition will run concurrent with three other competitions across the country in three other counties. The winning architectural practice for the competition will, in addition to prize money, be awarded the design commission for the project. The winning proposal for Kildare will be progressed by Kildare County Council as a live project funded by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, through to construction and delivery.
Speaking at the launch, David Creighton, Senior Architect, Kildare County Council said; “This is a great opportunity to showcase how vacant and back land sites in town and village centres can be utilised. Developing sites like these provide much needed housing in key locations, close to amenities and public transport and help to being life back to urban areas. The use of a design competition will promote design quality in the provision of housing and hopefully encourage practices to participate and display their skills and the value that architects can bring to improving our built environment.”
The winner of the competition is expected to be announced during Quarter 2 2023. The Jury for the Town Centre Living Competitions will be as follows:
Kildare
Miriam Delaney MRIAI (Chair)
Gareth Williams MRIAI Architect Advisor DHLGH
David Creighton FRIAI Senior Architect Kildare County Council
More information on the competition can be found here: https://www.riai.ie/whats-on/competitions/open
