There’s a disused building near my house in Harold’s Cross that’s set to be redeveloped. I was assuming apartments and maybe some mixed-use retail space. Nope.

It’s a 174-bedroom "co-living" complex. I just had a look at the plans. Judge for yourself. 1/
Here’s the sample floor plan they provide. 46 rooms all sharing a single kitchen, living, and dining area. 2/
Here’s a sample room: 12m², a single window, and just enough for a fold-down bed and a toilet. (Most rooms are 16m².) At what point do you stop calling this an apartment and start calling it a fancy cell? 3/
Here’s a sample room: 12m², a single window, and just enough for a fold-down bed and a toilet. (Most rooms are 16m².) At what point do you stop calling this an apartment and start calling it a fancy cell? 3/
Here’s a sample room: 12m², a single window, and just enough for a fold-down bed and a toilet. (Most rooms are 16m².) At what point do you stop calling this an apartment and start calling it a fancy cell? 3/
BTW there's also a “wider master plan” to later wedge the same thing in right across the road. 4/
It's all presented attractively, as if WeWork did apartments. There’s 100+ pages of this glossy bullshit in their promotional brochure: http://www.kenilworthhallshd.com/documents/Architectural%20Report.pdf 5/
It's all presented attractively, as if WeWork did apartments. There’s 100+ pages of this glossy bullshit in their promotional brochure: http://www.kenilworthhallshd.com/documents/Architectural%20Report.pdf 5/
It's all presented attractively, as if WeWork did apartments. There’s 100+ pages of this glossy bullshit in their promotional brochure: http://www.kenilworthhallshd.com/documents/Architectural%20Report.pdf 5/
It's all presented attractively, as if WeWork did apartments. There’s 100+ pages of this glossy bullshit in their promotional brochure: http://www.kenilworthhallshd.com/documents/Architectural%20Report.pdf 5/
Dublin needs to develop massively in the years to come to deal with its serious housing problems. But hotel rooms dressed up as apartments isn’t the way to do it. These are not homes. 6/
This is an attempt to normalise inadequate living conditions and recast a sanitised version of tenement living as the acceptable new middle class. It is housing designed for Airbnb stays, homeless families, and a permanent underclass of service workers. 7/
I’d be happy to see a large building developed on that site. But this is just bad design: it’s cheap, exploitative, greedy, and marginalising. I really hope it isn’t the future of Dublin housing. /end
Loads of responses to this. FYI you can:

- Attend @PeterDooleyDUB’s on-site public meeting on Mon Aug 10, 7pm.
- Register an observation with An Bord Pleanala before Aug 19. Planning Reference: 307/608.
- Contact Minster for Housing @DarraghOBrienTD: [email protected]
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