Cornamona Court

PKA’s Cornamona Court development for Dublin City Council comprises a mixture of houses, duplexes and apartments on a brownfield site at Kylemore Road, Ballyfermot. Commissioned out of an invited competition in 2006, construction of the project was delayed, first, by the 2008 financial crisis and then by the 2019 Covid pandemic.

The 61-unit development comprises two elements. A four- and five-storey block extends the full length of the site, creating a strong frontage to Kylemore Road, forming a courtyard garden which is lined by a terrace of two-storey houses to the rear of the site.

The own-door duplex units along the Kylemore Road have stepped approaches from the public street and accessible entrances from the courtyard. The upper-level apartments have deck-access from two lift / stair cores which also have both street and courtyard entrances. There is a ground-floor communal facility for residents at the city end of the development, and a semi-basement car park extends the length of the site beneath the courtyard.

The project utilises strategies such as self-condensing boilers, PV solar panels, heat recovery systems, and a highly-insulated fabric to achieve an ‘A’ building energy rating, as well as compliance with NZEB regulations.

Developing the language of PKA’s earlier inner-city projects for DCC, the well-proportioned brick architecture of the scheme aims to provide a tenure-neutral architecture that will provide residents with a sense of pride in where they live – now and into the future.

One of the core objectives for the development was to create opportunities for older tenants of council-owned houses to be rehoused into purpose-designed apartments within their neighbourhood, and in 2023, Cornamona Court won the Age Friendly Housing Award at the Age Friendly Ireland Awards.

Client: Dublin City Council

Value: €18,000,000

Size: 61 units

Reference: Ms. Olivia Gough, Deputy City Architect, DCC
Design: 2006
Completion: 2023