Award winning Roscrea building design exhibit open now

Last year Roscrea received a major boost when it was selected as one of only four winning towns chosen from across the country for the first ever R.I.A.I. town centre housing design competition for architects.

The competition made the national news at the time and the winners were announced by the Minister of Housing, Darragh O’Brien.

28 of the best architects in Ireland and some from the U.K. submitted entries for the designated site, which is adjacent to Gantly Road in the centre of Roscrea town.

The winning entry came from JFOC Architects in Dublin, who included Roscrea native Claire McManus and is now progressing through planning and the Dept. approval system and we expect construction to begin in the first half of 2025.

However, the exhibition of the plans currently open at Roscrea library will offer people an opportunity to see some of the other concepts which were submitted.

An artist's impression of the new building planned for Roscrea

Up until now the RIAI held on to all of the entries for their own exhibitions, but this time have made them available to put on display in the town.

It is a great honour for Roscrea to have won this competition and we feel variety of the 28 entries for the same piece of ground in the town is something many people may find very interesting.

The exhibition is now on display in Roscrea Library and will remain there until mid-October.

Background to the Gantly Street project

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 27th of last year. 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, in 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 design proposals were received from all of the main architects in Ireland and some from the U.K. 28 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 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 create 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 entries to Tipperary County Council and an exhibition of all of the various proposals for the Gantly Road site is now on display at Roscrea Library and will run until mid October.

It is amazing to see the variety of wonderful design solutions, by many of the top architects in Ireland and the U.K., for the same piece of ground in the town - everybody is invited to come along to see this unique Roscrea Exhibition for themselves.