BCDH were asked to prepare the designs for a substantial intervention within the village centre of Enniskerry. Enniskerry is obviously a very sensitive location and it was essential that any proposed development would not affect the charm and picturesque qualities that attract so many visitors every year. Enniskerry is not without its faults however and the issues relating to lack of car parking, no coherent town centre space, a lack of affordable accommodation for young families in the area, the lack of places to buy groceries were very much drivers for the client who was a well respected and community conscious family who had been located within the village for many years.  The proposed design and scale of the proposal would be in keeping with the existing fabric and grain of the village of Enniskerry whilst accepting that this is possibly the last opportunity for developing additional retail space in the centre of the village.  The proposal was for a new mixed-use development, comprising four retail units, two offices, thirteen units of residential accommodation and a café located off a new public square.  The design was truly site specific responding to the complex constraints of the site and the unique location, whilst displaying an architecture that responds sympathetically to its existing village setting.

The Square

Key to the success of the scheme and a major contribution to the civic design of Enniskerry, was the decision to locate a new hard landscaped public square at the heart of the proposed scheme.  In contrast to the village square, will be pedestrianised and introverted.  Although smaller in scale, it has the potential to provide much desired public facilities for the residents and visitors alike.  This public square was intersected by a new pedestrian route, which runs through the site and provides an alternative safe route, into the town centre, separating the pedestrian access from the traffic on the R117 approach road from Bray.

One of the features of the new public square was that the existing ‘slaughter house’ has been retained and integrated into the proposed design.  The ‘slaughter house’ has with minimal intervention been adapted to provide the vertical circulation within the site, connecting the basement car park to the new square.

The new public square was bounded on all sides by new 2 storey developments, which have been designed to give the space a sense of community and activity throughout the day: to the rear of the existing pharmacy, retail accommodation has been proposed with office accommodation over; a new secure gate provides privacy to the rear of the pharmacy beyond; access to the basement level car parking was provided through the slaughterhouse; two retail units form the Southern boundary of the square leading to the apartment access beyond; across the new public route, a café with offices over, creates a corner element which acts as a welcome totem to Enniskerry.

The Route and the Boundary

To deal with the significant change in height between the level of the Mill Field and that of the village centre, the new pedestrian route, steps up through the site within the enclosure of the existing boundary wall and under the shelter of the existing mature trees which line the perimeter of the site.  This route allowed for the proposed building to be set back from the site boundary to avoid disturbing these features and as such the retention of the mature trees and the boundary wall became key to the development of the site.  In order to retain the privacy afforded by the screen of trees to the Mill Field the building line has also been set back along this line.  It would be our intention that this boundary wall be reduced in scale to allow the proposed residential units along this façade to enjoy views over this public space.

The motif of the solid stone perimeter and the canopy of trees has also been developed further as part of the architectural narrative in the development of the scheme design.

The Massing

This scheme has embraced the change of level over the site, by creating the new public square at a level consistent with the existing village square and using the depth below this to provide the car parking for the scheme, keeping cars in off street locations and out of the village centre.  The car park was accessed at the lower level of the site, pulled away from the corner at Enniskerry Bridge.  To reduce the visual impact of this car parking, it was largely buried under ground with the East façade onto the mill field being wrapped with residential accommodation that opens on to the public open space.  This new parking plinth forms the base of the scheme and was to be clad in local Wicklow granite as an architectural means of grounding the scheme in the site.

At this lower level base level, a line of duplex units are located along the curve of the South and Eastern boundaries opening onto the common ground of the Mill Field through the line of perimeter trees.

The superstructure accommodation, over the plinth, was designed as a two-storey wrap of building around a central ‘back of house’ area, very much in the same way as the urban blocks of Enniskerry have historically developed.  This design offers a ‘front’ façade to all aspects and as such, there was no ‘back’ façade or gable.  The ‘infill’ of the central, ‘back of house’, area has been developed as Retail Unit 1 which was accessed from the new public square.

Over the basement plinth a two-storey eaves line forms a datum around the site picking up the eaves levels of the existing pharmacy building.  This datum was continued around the main and ancillary buildings to unify the overall composition.

Over the eaves datum, a continuous pitched slate roof consolidates the main building further and with its continuous clerestory over also picks up the existing ridge level of the pharmacy.  The continuous roof follows the outline of the buildings, as it turns down from the village square to the Bray Road (R117) and wraps along the Southern and Eastern perimeter of the site finally returning to the public square along the edge of the ‘slaughter house’.  The overall scale of the roof has been broken into panels with the introduction of channel details, which creates a smaller module.  Within the height of this pitch roof, a further level of set back accommodation was contained within a wall garden hidden from view from below.

The walled garden sits over retail unit 1 and was located across two levels, In addition to providing secure communal open space for the residents it also provides access to the residential duplexes and apartments.  The apartments are accessed at the lower level from their rears while the duplexes are accessed at the upper level.  Internally the duplexes then drop down a level internally where they also gain an aspect to the Mill Field on the Eastern façades. 

The Materials

The palette of materials has been conservatively restricted to those found locally: stone; glass; render; timber and slate.  The controlled use of these materials has helped to further knit the building into the existing fabric of Enniskerry, without trying to mimic the local vernacular.

The granite base which hides the car parking and the retail delivery areas repeats the material of the perimeter wall, all be it with a different treatment, would be given a rusticated (flame textured) treatment, which would help ground the scheme and identify this as the ‘operational’ end of the scheme.  Our concept was for a wall within a wall defining the new public route through the site.  Over the ‘heavy’ base the use of the materials would be intentionally lighter aping the materials of the village.

To the North and West, the village elevations, the façade treatment will consist of render to the first floor level with a continuous strip of glazing to the apartments, portions of which will be recessed deeper into the plan to form balconies.  To the ground level, a mixture of stone and glass provides attractive, yet controlled frontages to the shops.  The entrance to retail unit 1 has been enlarged to form a more defined entrance screen, which opens onto the public square.  This composition of this screen has been modelled to link through to the ‘slaughter house’ thus unifying the old and new.

On the Southern and Eastern facades, in response to the potential for maximising sunlight and the feeling of openness, a different treatment was afforded to the façade: greater amounts of glass are combined with balconies to the bedrooms to create a façade that has depth and interest as it follows the curve of the site perimeter.  The same palette of materials has been adopted again in a different manner to take advantage of the orientation and the proximity to the retained trees.  The transition from the Northern façade to the Eastern, was softened through the use of an eroded corner, broken down through the use of glazing, which has been clad in timber, visually linking it with the timber screen of the café / office building on the main prominent corner.

The addition to the rear of the existing pharmacy building utilises the same palette of materials and treatments as the proposed main building, however as it turns the corner to the village square provides a subtle signal the proposed development will aim to draw people into the centre of the scheme and the new public square.  The existing cash machine location to the Northern façade of the pharmacy has been retained and incorporated into the proposal.
The café and office building on the corner closest to Enniskerry bridge has been treated slightly different to the remainder of the scheme in order to strengthen its location as the prominent corner of the scheme, where one turns the corner into Enniskerry for the first time.  A screen of timber louvres that follows the curve of the street around the corner into the village forms a filter at first floor mimicking the natural screen of trees to the perimeter of the site.  This screen also continues beyond the building where it encompasses and shelters a seated area under the canopy of one of the mature trees along the site perimeter.  The intention was that this screen will interact with the trees and almost become part of the overall natural composition.