The project is a another major step in the regeneration of Dublin’s North Inner City, providing high quality housing around a landscaped courtyard with children’s play areas, achieving A3 BER.

Clúid Housing Association appointed COADY Architects to lead this major regeneration, involving adding two floors and reconfiguring the existing 1940’s concrete structure on Sean McDermott Street Dublin.

The first residents have been welcomed back to St Mary’s Mansions after the €23m redevelopment. A total of 25 original residents will be moving back in with many of the remaining 55 apartments going to families from the surrounding area.

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien said the scheme will be a model for future regeneration projects, which he wants to see built quickly to the same quality.

The project is the largest deep-retrofit project in the country. The existing 80 apartments were stripped back to the original concrete shell and enlarged to comply with current spatial standards. Two additional floors were added to achieve the same quantum of homes. The apartments are all low energy with central plant located in the original basement, which was designed as a wartime bomb shelter, with PV panels on the roof, with typically A3 BER.