This project was a finalist in the European Responsible Housing Awards 2022 under the ‘More than a roof – supporting communities of equal opportunities’, organised by Housing Europe, the International Union of Tenants and DELPHIS.
Organisation: Fold Housing
Goals
Fold Housing’s objective is to provide affordable homes and enable residents to age and thrive in their communities. Fold pursues an approach of ‘building communities’ and invests in community services and regeneration, providing support to vulnerable people and reinvesting their income into delivering social and community support. We are presenting one of our schemes for consideration, New Dolphin Park, as a regeneration project and an example of Fold’s continued commitment to promoting community development.
Main Goals of Fold:
- Ensure access to affordable and accessible housing and building communities that are truly age-friendly;
- Ensure we enable our tenants to age in place and that they can age in dignity;
- Utilise a collaborative human rights-based approach to develop and provide housing and communities that actually suit the needs of the residents.
- Increase access to transportation links, and recreational facilities, allowing tenants to have access to social interaction and events with their neighbours;
- Our tenant engagement officers facilitate communication and resident input into how Fold housing services are delivered;
- Drive participation in our tenant engagement by hosting community events, discussions, and public meetings;
- Encourage new forms of coexistence, social relations, and community self-organisation by empowering our tenants, as they age;
- Promote equal relationships between people of diverse ages, ethnicities, and genders;
- Fold’s housing team is influenced by the National Positive Ageing Strategy and is committed to building age-friendly communities, which in turn influence the surrounding areas.
- Fold recognises the importance of the community to our tenants and invests in and support this through their housing officer and tenant engagement roles.
Context
The recent global financial crisis has had a significant impact on Ireland’s housing industry, disproportionately affecting older people in society. This has prompted Fold as a Housing Body, to meet the needs of older people in Irish society and provide affordable, specialist housing. Fold Ireland is one of Ireland’s leading approved housing bodies providing housing, care, and support to older people. Fold ensures to provide homes to individuals from low socio-economic backgrounds, with a particular emphasis on housing older people, ensuring they can age in place.
New Dolphin Park, one of Fold’s award-winning schemes, is situated in the wider New Dolphins’ Housing Estate, a 1950s estate of 400 flats, the largest remaining council flat complex in the State. It became notorious for its substance use issues in the 1980s and 1990s, from which it has been difficult to recover. The units were increasingly neglected. It was designated for redevelopment, yet the elderly residents in Dublin’s Dolphin House complex were being left out of the regeneration scheme because of budgetary constraints from the city council. They were residing in damp, cramped bedsit accommodation, where their space requirements would not meet the minimum standard for new builds. The development of the units destined for the elderly was undertaken by Fold Housing on a site transferred from Dublin City Council. Many individuals residing in Dolphin’s Estate and the bedsit accommodation wished to see this lot transformed into something sustainable that would benefit the community.
The design of New Dolphin Park was the culmination of more than two years of collaboration and consultation between Fold Housing, Dublin City Council, the residents of Dolphin Park and the wider community.
Fold’s two Community Engagement workers empower tenants and act as the link between our communities and a range of other local authority and voluntary sector providers.
Fold took 44 individual, dark, cramped flats and regenerated them to deliver 43 modern, energy-efficient, accessible, and universally designed apartments. These apartments are linked by a communal day room where tenants meet for socialising and are provided subsidised meals. Fold had continuous meetings with the prospective tenants and their architectural representative and included their ideas for design, this resulted in many additional client-led features, such as a sedum roof, photovoltaic solar panels, bright colour scheme, community centre, community development workers, level access throughout the apartments, 24 hour on-call service and much more. The success of this particular project illustrates what can be achieved by working in collaboration with prospective tenants and the wider stakeholders.
What is innovative about this project?
Building, development, and regeneration of housing in Ireland are property-led. Fold adopted a human rights-based approach of collaboration with the prospective residents and wider community stakeholders to build a long-term sustainable community through consultative forums. Community investment continued after the completion of the build through their active housing officer and tenant engagement roles.
Fold worked with the local council to build and develop a community space to benefit the residents and the wider community. This is not included in most modern builds due to space constraints. This space has been planned to facilitate a community employment scheme, designed to provide paid employment and experience to long-term unemployed and disadvantaged people in the community.
The whole building has been designed with ageing in place as the forefront. The apartments are level access throughout. Bathrooms are fitted to DOCM standards. The apartment layout is designed to provide space for free movement with wheelchairs and mobility aids and are equipped with charging points for wheelchairs. The layout of the building is designed with mobility and ageing in mind with numerous rest and meeting points to allow residents to remain active and avoid isolation regardless of their ability.
Interventions
New Dolphin Park was designed and built-in line with the 7 principles of universal design. These are Equitable Use, Flexibility in Use, Simple and Intuitive Use, Perceptible Information, Tolerance for Error, Low Physical Effort and Size and Space for Approach and Use.
There is a high level of stigma within social housing and flats complexes due to historic reports of a high prevalence of antisocial behaviour. A key tool that was used in the regeneration of Dolphins Park was consultative forums with residents and key stakeholders. They gave those who would be directly impacted by the regeneration a forum to give input and openly debate the housing to be provided.
The human rights-based approach to housing is a practice not widely utilised in Ireland. There is no national policy statement on regeneration and these projects are usually property led and fail to recognise existing community networks that create a safe and sustainable community. Using the PANEL principles of Participation, Accountability, Non-discrimination, Empowerment and Legality, Fold gave the residents and stakeholders the opportunity to influence how their housing and community would be built, they used collaboration to rebuild New Dolphin Park to a high standard that met the residents’ needs.
Impact
Creating a social syndicate between HOAS, Setlementtiasunnot and Asuntosäätiö was a beneficial way to develop sustainable neighbourhood. One of the most important decisions in planning and development is creating content and walls at the same time. This is how designers usually differ from architects – they tend to think buildings from the inside to the outside – how daily life happens from a user’s point of view.
There is regularity in the interactions between residents and housing organisations. Regular resident satisfactory questionnaires, regular block team meetings – the team plans, discuss and solves Block events, maintenance, daily issues, etc. Residents and developer representatives are members of the Block team.
Numerous events, gatherings, clubs, dinners and brunche are regularly held – in 2018 alone, there were over 60 different resident events! Residents are also encouraged to propose and organise events themselves.
Lesson learned: it is helpful to in the early stage, discuss common targets and shared goals for the project. Common understanding is essential. Write up a draft contract as soon as possible. Identifying what are the shared management issues and what are the issues that belong to the contract partners. Juridical assistance is highly beneficial.
Questions remain: How to keep alive the original spirit of the common Block when the new inhabitants arrive? How and with whom to communicate the Block concept? When further development of the concept is needed, based on feedback from the residents, who is in control of that process?
The Block won a national ARA development recognition for 2017.
Lessons learned
- Refurbishment project related to elderly people, the realization of 43 modern energy-efficient flats. Flats with energy performance class (EPC) rate A.
- Renting: differential rent system which is defined based on the household’s income.
- The apartment layout is designed following the 7 Principles of universal design to provide space for free movement with wheelchairs and mobility aids allowing residents to remain active and avoid isolation regardless of their ability.
- Community and neighbourhood involvement: this space has been planned to facilitate a community employment scheme. This will employ people from the local community and is designed to provide paid employment and experience to long term unemployed and disadvantaged people in the community.
- Clear Involvement of the tenants in the decision-making process from the very beginning.
