Manor Hill Age Friendly Housing: 71 stunning homes created through adaptive reuse of a former convent. A landmark project providing much-needed social housing in Waterford, transforming its urban landscape.

Manor Hill Age Friendly Housing –
Another stunning project delivered. It was such a pleasure working so closely with a great team to deliver this project.
This recently completed project involved the change of use of a former convent and ancillary buildings to a mix of 1, 2, and 3 bedroom housing units, totaling 71, for social housing, delivered under the Repair and Lease Scheme by Walsh & Sheehan Ltd in conjunction with Waterford City & County Council. The buildings, the majority of which are protected structures, underwent an extensive refurbishment and upgrade process in what is the largest single use of the Repair and Lease scheme in Ireland since the inception of this focused housing initiative by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

Sector
Workplace
Service
Architecture and interior design
Studio
Dublin
Client
Savvi
Includes
Full interior refurbishment of existing offices
Area
1400sqm
Status
Completed
Year
2021

The property, which had remained unused for a number of years following the closure of the convent takes up almost an entire block of Waterford City sitting between the residential areas of Barrack Street, Carthage’s Avenue and Hennessy’s Road, the SETU College Street Campus to the south and the main city centre. Integral to the overall site strategy was to introduce multiple points of access for pedestrians that would both facilitate easy and practical access for the residents of the scheme and also allow residents in adjoining areas to utilise the new public footpaths and the landscaped grounds. Previously, the property allowed for no public access and was effectively walled off from the surrounding streets on all sides. A new main vehicular entrance to the development has concentrated the majority of traffic away from the pedestrian access points and has allowed for the front of the property to be opened up visually to the passing public, emphasis’s both the change of use from religious to residential and the sites change in engagement with the broader public. The former chapel has been repurposed into the main entrance of the building and also functions as a day room/multi-purposes space for the residents.
A project of this type brings a number of advantages including the adaptive re-use to residential of former religious buildings, the delivery of much need housing in an area of high demand, the outward visual benefit of the upgrade works in tandem with the wholesale change in the sites engagement with its own context and also, in this instance, has allowed Waterford City and County Council to engage in a ‘right sizing’ exercise within there own housing stock, freeing up larger family sized homes within the city centre.

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