New architects' leader James Pike says his colleagues could do better in designing major residential developments, writes Frank McDonald, Environment Editor

Architects need to "get their act together" and inform themselves on the basic standards required to create sustainable residential environments - otherwise "we'll have a bit too much of a free-for-all", according to James Pike, who has taken over from Tony Reddy as president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI).

That's one of the reasons why be believes it has been "necessary for An Bord Pleanála to fire a few shots across the bows, by refusing permission for [ a number of major housing] schemes that were badly designed because a lot of people aren't bothering to do the checklists on daylight rules, for example".

Pike will not be joining the posse led by estate agents Hooke & MacDonald clamouring to have the appeals board reined in. "There are some questions to be answered, but generally the board has been very positive," he says. "I don't agree with some of its decisions, but I'm quite prepared to take criticism."

He points to the success of McCrossan O'Rourke Manning Architects in winning approval for more than 500 apartments and 70 houses at St Loman's Hospital, in Palmerstown. Overturning South Dublin County Council's refusal, the board ruled that the proposed mix would be a "sustainable form of development".

Pike says An Bord Pleanála should explain its decisions more fully, especially where they depart from a planning inspector's recommendation - as happened, incidentally, in the St Loman's case.

But he adds that the board is "more than willing to discuss things with us" and indeed, will be meeting with the RIAI next Monday. He sets great store in a study being carried out by Toal O Muiré, another past president of the institute, of housing design standards for the Department of the Environment.

This should lead to a review of the design guidelines for apartments - now more than 10 years old - and will also have implications for public sector housing.

His firm, O'Mahony Pike (OMP), has become one of the most prolific designers of high-density housing in the Dublin area, such as Herbert Park in Ballsbridge, Charlotte Quay, Fitzwilliam Quay, Hanover Quay and the Barrow Street Gasworks site in Docklands, Mount St Anne's in Milltown, Addison Park in Glasnevin and The Grange in Stillorgan.

The firm, which employs more than 100 staff, has also been involved in developing the masterplans for Ballymun, Pelletstown and Adamstown, as well as pioneering a scheme of social and affordable housing in Cherry Orchard, where innovative, high-quality system-building technology was used to speed up its delivery.

There is one major headache which Pike won't suffer during his two-year term of office: the long-running issue of architects' registration has been "sorted" with the publication in December of the new Building Control Bill, though he says "there are still a few battles to be fought and won to make the legislation workable".

Responding to a recent survey by the National Disability Authority which found that only 4 per cent of new housing schemes under construction in Dublin were accessible to people with disabilities, Pike says it's up to the local authorities to employ a "basic force" of inspectors to ensure that rules are followed. Though he agrees with the concept of "lifetime housing", which caters for people of all ages and abilities, he believes that "empty nesters" - and the community at large - would be better served if they had more of an incentive to move out of larger houses. What stops this happening is the penal level of stamp duty on prospective purchasers. He and his wife Marie reared their family in a large one-off house in Cherrywood, near Loughlinstown, when it was still open countryside. But they now live in a spacious townhouse behind Northbrook Road - built on the site of St Anne's Hospital as part of an OMP project for their best clients, Park Developments Ltd.

Four large Victorian houses were renovated as apartments and an adjoining orphanage turned into offices. The Pikes' patio faces north, but that means it gets the sun from 5pm onwards in the summer, when it would be most in use. It also gets reflected light even in midwinter from glass in the buildings opposite.

What James Pike also likes about their new home is that it's in an area with a mix of residential, offices and local facilities.

"That makes it much more secure, because there's somebody around all day.

"It's also within walking distance of everything, so we don't have difficulties with parking a car in town as our friends do.

"A recent study found that an average family with two school-going children, living 20 miles from the nearest town, are spending 2,200 hours a year between them sitting in motor cars.

" If you gross up the cost of all this travelling, it means they could get another mortgage of €150,000 to live in a more accessible area."

That's why he believes the new energy rating system for housing should be broadened to include location, petrol consumption and long-term sustainability. "Scattered rural houses will end up as they were after the Famine - deserted.

"A lot of people want to be in villages, within walking distance of the shop, church, doctor, etcetera."

Pike is a Londoner who had the privilege of growing up in the idyllic world of Hampstead Garden Suburb.

He did his diploma in architecture at London Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster), and it was there he met Eoin McVeigh, with whom he collaborated on a competition entry for UCD's Belfield masterplan.

That was in the mid-1960s when "things were beginning to take off", though they made just £600 in their first year of practice, before teaming up with McVeigh's cousin, Paddy Delany, to form Delany McVeigh and Pike.

"Dublin had a lot of life in it - the talk was fantastic. Luckily now, with this generation, talk has turned into action."

Some of this "action" does not meet with his approval, however. Like the Government's "crazy" decentralisation programme, which aims to disperse public servants to numerous towns. "Why the hell didn't they consider Cork city? It has a better way of life than Dublin, with theatres and all the cultural and leisure activities people want."

Pike would like architects and planners to take a longer-term view, looking ahead 30 to 40 years. "The fact is that if Ireland does achieve the projected growth of another one million people by 2020, we would be getting back to somewhere close to what we had during the Famine if you add in the population of Northern Ireland."

He sees "no reason why we can't achieve a united Ireland" and says the best way to bring it about would be to "go back to the provinces", giving Ulster, Leinster, Munster and Connacht their own regional governments.

Also urgently needed is "an overall planning strategy for the whole country" to deal with the "challenge of climate change".

As for the M50, he notes that the original Myles Wright regional plan had four new roads over the River Liffey - not just one. The partially built Outer Ring Road needs to be extended to the airport, while Dublin Port should be relocated to Bremore, near Drogheda, which he sees as the logical terminal point for an "outer orbital route".