Phase one masterplan
Bray promenade circa. 1900
Aerial view south towards Bray Head
Market Square
Sea Gardens
A site surrounded by the natural beauty of the Irish Sea and the nearby Wicklow Mountains will become a healthy, community-focused place to live. Our gentle intervention in the bustling Irish coastal town of Bray reshapes seaside living with family homes alongside a new public park, hotel, shops and cafés alongside improved pathways to the sea and nearby woodlands.
The town, built on a Victorian planning grid with generous streets and well-proportioned squares and parks, became a popular seaside resort when the railway from Dublin opened in 1854 and became known as the ‘Brighton of Ireland.’ Over time, the lure of foreign travel saw its appeal as a tourist resort diminished. Despite this, Bray retained a strong identity and is much loved today, with a strong cultural character, famed for its festivals and events throughout the year, and with a reputation as a market town that is youthful and of its place.
Our design for the Sea Garden’s neighbourhood reinterprets and expands the town’s historic and distinctive architectural character with a design that makes the most of its seaside location. Common in seaside resorts, we’ve continued the 19th-century precedent of locating taller elements along the seafront while colourful two and three-storey homes are further inland. At the seafront, six to eight-storey buildings create grandeur and enclosure, and at the southeast corner, a 12-storey marker building provides a visual link back to Bray and the promenade.
Throughout the site, panoramic sea views are maximised, with views to the north as far as Killiney and to the south as far as Bray Head. Mountain views are also panoramic and visible to the north, west and south.
| Client | Ballymore | ||||
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| Location | Bray, Ireland | ||||
| Size | 21.3 hectares | ||||
| Status | Current | ||||
| Homes | 1,200 | ||||
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