Can you force a family into an apartment if they don't want to go? All the evidence so far suggests that you can't. The suburban two-storey with gardens front and back is still the family choice but the planning authorities are hoping that will change.

Dublin Corporation's development plan, for example, stipulates that 25 per cent of the apartments in a scheme should be family-sized - i.e. not less than 750 sq ft.

They also require that the floor plans of small one and two-bed room apartment units "shall be so designed that at a later date they can be amalgamated to form larger two and three-bedroom units."

The reality is, however, that the people these apartments are intended for rarely buy them.

"We are not social engineers," says John Martin, Deputy City Planner, Dublin Corporation, "all we can do is facilitate".

But is facilitating the day when the Irish family will see the light - and abandon any aspirations to living in suburban semi - a triumph of optimism over experience?

More a matter of practicalities, says Martin.

"If we were to continue with low densities of 10 two-storey houses to the acre, Dublin would end up stretching out to Kinnegad which would militate against public transport services. It's hard to run a bus service in a scattered suburb."

Making assumptions about the make-up and needs of the "traditional" Irish family is also erroneous, he says.

"Family sizes are changing and lifestyles are changing and the place for drying clothes is not necessarily the back garden."

The suburban semi once accounted for 85 per cent of new homes, but that number is now down to 5 per cent. A shortage of development land has prompted the planning authorities to switch from low-density to high-density schemes, with an increase in the number of large two-bed and three-bed apartments and terraced townhouses.

It's not about piling families into high-rise buildings, he says, but into three and four-storey developments geared for family living with adequate storage facilities, large open spaces for children to play, creches and laundries and the provision of at least one car space per apartment.

"It's about creating sustainable communities. In the 1990s a huge amount of city centre apartments were being built and they were being occupied by young professionals and couples without children.

"They gave the place vibrancy but created largely transient communities with a high turnover of people. We need to encourage a mix of people and make a place for those who will put down roots in an area."

While he says he is not expecting families to flock in huge numbers to the city centre, they may be more amenable to the quieter atmosphere of the docklands or to the suburban setting of the large volume of family-oriented apartments due to come on stream in areas like Santry Demesne, Pelletstown and on the lands flanking the Northern Fringe Interceptor .

Ciaran Murray, MD of Ballymun Regeneration Ltd, says he is "absolutely satisfied that high density is the way to go".

"The general misconception is that the Ballymun Flats are high density but in actual fact they are high rise and low density; 36 blocks built in a sea of open space, as part of the prairie-style planning of the 1960s and 1970s".

The failure of the Ballymun flats has been attributed to its status as "an estate on the edge", remote from the local infrastructure.

There is now a move back towards the tightly knit urban planning popular in Georgian times and evident in areas like Ranelagh, Rathmines and Phibsboro. "They were concerned with quality rather than quantity of space and ensuring there was enough population in a area to sustain local business.

"It is better to have properly developed landscaped space that relates to the buildings around it with good public lighting and proper facilities."

He believes we will have to move toward the more flexible and diverse European models of living accommodation.

"Apartments will probably become an acceptable part of family life but only if they are in the right context and not remote from activities of the immediate area

"But you can't prescribe an inner city solution to all places, like Ballymun, and just plonk an apartment block up against the gable wall of a two-storey house. In Ballymun we are going for a mix of houses and apartments.

The apartments will be own-door rather than multiple access, which tends get run down, and will be small blocks of six to 10 apartments."

The three-bed apartment is, size-wise, the most adaptable to family accommodation and usually measures around 1,100 sq ft.

They generally account for no more than 10 per cent of a development and are often sold as penthouses at a premium. At the moment, the ordinary three-bed "is not a great seller although that depends on location," says Conor O'Gallagher of Ross McParland.

"We are still a nation of house owners. Usually what happens is that young professionals buy them and rent the other two rooms out, ,availing of the rent-a-room allowance."

They tend to sell faster in the city centre than the suburbs. "If people have the choice of a house in roughly the same price range, they will go for the house," says O'Gallagher.

According to Ken MacDonald of Hooke & MacDonald three-beds are bought by investors, business people located in the provinces who want a city base or by people with children going to college.

"People retiring might use the third bedroom as a study if they are trading down and as a rental option they can be popular with groups of friends who want to band together."

Even with the planning stipulation for larger apartments, there are not too many three-beds available.

"They use up a lot of space. The two-bed apartment is much more viable and more saleable. We don't have that European mindset where families live in the city centre. We have a different set of priorities, and suburban way of life."

He disapproves of the decline of the one-bed in favour of bigger apartments.

"A decade ago they made up 40 per cent of a scheme, now it's gone down to 20 per cent. This is going against demand.

"One-beds and smaller apartments are extremely popular with young people starting out. A lot of the development plans are based on the perception of what living styles people should have rather than actual demand."

While some might argue that families will have to succumb to the lure of apartment life if there is little other alternative, others believe that they will travel further outside the city boundaries to areas where houses are available.

"People might make the choice to move to Mullingar," says John Martin, but then they have to deal with long commuting times and that is ultimately anti-family."

"What is clear is that we have to provide more housing units to cater for the number of people about to come on the housing market in Dublin and the amount of in-migration .

"As a planner I don't see a future for low-density housing . All we can do is make sure the proper amenities are put in place and if, after that, families are not prepared to buy or rent these apartments, then we've all shot ourselves in the foot."

emorgan@irish-times.ie