The
Sandy
Quarter
Mail Address
The Sandy Quarter Project
The Land Development Agency
The Portershed
15 Market Street, Galway
H91 TCX3
The Land Development Agency
The Portershed
15 Market Street, Galway
H91 TCX3
About the project
The Land Development Agency (LDA), in partnership with Galway City Council (GCC) is preparing a Spatial Framework for lands bounding Sandy Road, Galway. The LDA is a commercial, state-sponsored body whose objective is to ensure the delivery of sustainable affordable housing and support the development of underutilised public lands across Ireland.
The first step towards delivering the transformative potential of the Sandy Road area was the preparation of a Design Review which was commissioned by the LDA and was run by the Royal Institute of Architects Ireland (RIAI) to provide high-level, blue-sky visions for the site together with indicative views on the possible capacity of the site. Following this stage the LDA appointed a multi-disciplinary design team led by Reddy Architecture + Urbanism to develop this draft spatial framework.
The objective of the Spatial Framework is to develop the following three structuring principles for the development of a new mixed-use neighbourhood at Sandy Road:
• A comprehensive vision
• Masterplanning themes
• Key principles and guidelines
The future development of a new urban quarter at Sandy Road will focus on optimising brownfield and underutilised areas in order to deliver on the vision established in the Design Review.
c.650- 750 New Homes
Medium-Scale Density Typically 3-6 storeys
Landmark building up to 9-storeys
New Urban Park
12,490 sqm public parkland
5,640 sqm private pocket parks
A Mixed-use Neighbourhood
1450 sqm Ground floor mixed-use space
c.7250-9000 sqm Commercial space
1750 sqm Enterprise space
1050 sqm Community space
Biodiversity Net Gain
Habitat Biodiversity Units: c.+93%
Linear (Hedge) Biodiversity Units: c. +68%
A Mix of Housing Types Affordable
Cost-rental, Social, Private
A Mix of People
Multi-generational living
Universal designed homes
A new neighbourhood for every age and every ability and mobility
Sustainability
Electric charging, solar panels and orientation to natural light
Community orientated flexible facilities
Walkable neighbourhood well connected to public transport
Vision
Ceathrú an Ghainimh – The Sandy Quarter will have a strong sense of place for the entire local community. The Quarter will be easy to navigate via new pedestrian and cycle routes. These routes will create a walkable neighbourhood; sparking renewed growth across the entire area. The Spatial Framework provides for a new local main street with active frontages and new community facilities.
The Square will aim to be a new city location where people will genuinely want to spend time and build relationships. The character areas will be people focused, integrated with high quality public realm and bio-diverse parkland areas and play spaces. The neighbourhood will have distinctive character areas with innovative housing and streets. The development will be a major new pilot opportunity for the city through the provision of high quality, universally designed, energy positive mixed tenure homes, including affordable and social homes. A new vision for community will act as the future benchmark for local neighbourhood development.
Achoimre Fheidhmeach an Dréacht-Chreata Spáis
Draft Executive Summary Document
Draft Spatial Framework Document
Design Approach
The Spatial Framework has been developed on a series of distinct character areas that are linked throughout the site. The development of the concept plan was influenced by the extension of the Terryland River Park into the heart of the scheme. Major urban design moves such as the realignment of the Sandy Road direction provides a new organisational approach for the site’s key plots. This in turn ensures that these plots are developed into distinct character areas that can be delivered sequentially.
The new urban quarter will provide medium-high scale density, mixed tenure homes, situated around a central park and a series of smaller garden courts and pocket parks and public square. A mix of apartments, walk-up apartments and terraced housing which relates to the site grades. These are typically 3-6 storey in height. The proposed urban quarter will ensure that social connectivity and health orientated design is achieved though green infrastructure and best practice approaches.
