Urban and suburban design

Good design enhances people’s lives

Sir, – Richard Herriott (Letters, September 28th) is so right to argue for better design for suburban Dublin’s “sprawling expanse”. There is a similar sprawl around Greystones, Co Wicklow. There, the developers’ idea of a housing estate is a collection of identikit houses with handkerchief gardens and possibly an area of barren (easily maintained) grass in the middle.

We used to live in a garden suburb of Birmingham, originally built to house workers from the grim inner city. The houses were economically but well built with an imaginative street plan, and, within an overall uniformity, every house was different in some subtle design detail. And every street was lined with a different species of tree. It was and still is a dynamic and caring community.

Good design enhances people’s lives as well as the environment! –Yours, etc,

TRICIA CUSACK,

READ MORE

Greystones,

Co Wicklow.