Born in Bray

Bray was once the coastal resort for Dubliners looking to escape the city. Today, its character continues to stand in contrast to the capital—informal, relaxed, and closely connected to nature. Bray is about play, not work: a place that celebrates its difference through its lively art and music scenes, alongside sea swimming and surfing, or hiking in the Wicklow Mountains.

Born out of former golf course lands, our approach to Sea Gardens consciously builds on and continues the character of this 19th-century resort town. Extending over 16 hectares (40 acres), the growing neighbourhood features 1,200 new homes alongside shops and cafes with a Market Square providing a focal point for the community and hosting food markets, festivals, and exhibitions.

To create a place that felt like a seamless extension of Bray, our first move was to establish a vocabulary of streets, squares, and parks that could knit into the town’s streetscape and its network of walkable routes. Homeowners at Sea Gardens can enjoy access to pedestrian routes running north-south along the coast to Bray Head and east-west along the river, connecting to the town centre.

Due to be delivered in distinct phases, the neighbourhood is tied together using a landscape palette of light stone, coastal grasses, and indigenous trees, particularly Scots Pine, characteristic of this part of Ireland. Throughout the district, public green space is interwoven and includes a new two-hectare Central Park along the river that retains existing trees and will provide flood defence for the town.

Buildings at Sea Gardens feel both familiar and new. A distinct characteristic of the town’s rich 19th-century architecture is the pastel-colour render, brick, and stone—a palette derived from local nature and geology. Throughout, we’ve selected materials that continue this local pattern of ‘old Bray’ with render used for more modest buildings and brick for larger ones.

As part of the initial phase, a collection of calm, understated homes range from two- to four-bedroom family houses and include the distinctive ‘over and under’ house typology, where a two-storey home is arranged over a single-storey garden home. Typical of seaside resorts, future phases will feature taller elements along the seafront, creating grandeur and enclosure, while two and three-storey homes sit further inland, consistent with the existing townscape.