Re: Re: Dublin skyline

I’m not sure the old ‘inner suburbs’ like Drumcondra and Rathmines would be considered high density by international standards. I was on a bus from the airport recently and overheard an ‘are we nearly there yet?’ conversation between two French visitors. No, said the other, they were still in ‘the suburbs’. This was past Drumcondra station and well onto Dorset Street. They seemed genuinely amazed to find themselves on the O’Connell Street two minutes later.
Our old terraced buildings have far fewer floors than those on the continent. I’m not sure what the historic reasons are for that, and there’s nothing we can do about it now, but I think it’s time MINIMUM heights and densities were introduced for new buildings.
Outside specifically sensitive areas, I don’t think building as low as four or five storeys in the centre is sustainable for a city that’s supposedly going to have two million people in it soon.
Do our planners ever go abroad? There is absolutely nothing wrong with an eight or nine storey terrace. If we had been building new streets like this for the last 10 years instead of acres of wasteful semi-ds, we wouldn’t have to bother ourselves with the high rise debate now.