Social Housing Regeneration Projects
Metropolitan Workshop has secured planning permission for two major social housing regeneration projects in Dublin on behalf of Dublin City Council, together delivering 276 high-quality new homes.
While both schemes respond to the urgent demand for social housing, they showcase two contrasting architectural strategies. At Cromcastle Court and the Old Coal Yard in Kilmore, a full new-build regeneration will replace three 1971 apartment blocks and a former depot with seven modern buildings ranging from four to six storeys. This site will deliver 152 social homes, including 34 age-friendly units designed to Universal Design standards, arranged around two central communal gardens framed by a preserved 120-year-old Himalayan cedar tree.
By contrast, the School Street project in The Liberties focuses on adaptive reuse. Here, 124 homes and a community childcare facility are delivered through a hybrid approach: deeply retrofitting the existing 1964 School Street Flats to retain its embodied carbon, while replacing the adjoining block to enclose a new 1,044 sq m communal courtyard.
United by a shared design principle, both developments place landscape, ecology, and shared outdoor spaces at their core to support resident health and wellbeing. Together, they demonstrate how socially-led regeneration can adapt to local context, whether through sensitive retrofit or thoughtful new development.
