Father Scully House wins ‘House Building Project of the Year’at 2016 Irish Building and Design Awards
The CHAS organisation has won the coveted House Building Project of the Year award at this year’s Irish Building and Design Awards which took place at the Ballsbridge Hotel (formerly Jurys) on Friday 22 April.
More than 500 people from the world of architecture, engineering, construction and design attended what is now the biggest annual awards ceremony in the industry to recognise and acknowledge the best in Ireland’s building and design projects over the past 12 months.
CHAS chairperson, Dan O’Connor said today, “The CHAS vision for the new Father Scully House was to build a ‘state of the art’, 21st century inner city social housing complex that would set the standard for all other inner city social housing projects. What sets this building apart from others is that it was built specifically with older persons in mind so that they could enjoy independent living and a high quality lifestyle in a modern, well designed, energy-efficient inner city environment. ”
Father Scully House is a new energy-efficient 99-apartment multi-storey mixed use inner city social housing development with street frontage to Middle Gardiner Street and Grenville Street at the corner of Mountjoy Square South.
The ‘state of the art’ build which cost €17m, was grant-funded by the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government with the funding administered by Dublin City Council’s Housing Department and overseen by CHAS. It incorporates three retail units, office accommodation and 99 residential apartments in two adjoining buildings – one five storey, one seven storey – and includes an internal landscaped courtyard.
The building was designed by Coady Architects and built by Collen Construction. The apartments are devoted to homes for older persons, each with a living room and generous balcony with concierge services and security provided from ground floor offices, while meeting rooms at roof level are available for communal activities.
With impressive energy-efficiency BER ratings of A3 and B1 the development features rainwater harvesting, solar panels and winter garden balconies in addition to landscaping works in the courtyard.
The Father Scully House complex is run by CHAS, a small voluntary organisation whose purpose is to provide affordable social housing for people over 55. The organisation is ‘not for profit’ and receives no direct state funding towards the building’s operating and maintenance costs. All rental income goes solely towards the cost of maintaining the buildings.
