Swords Masterplan - Fingal County Council

Urban Grain
THE RETAIL/COMMERCIAL CORE
The arrangement of buildings within the block is defined principally by their individual
plan form, height and scale. Building widths range on average from 8m to 10m in
width on the western side of the Main Street. The historic narrow frontage approach
establishes a building line of linked dwellings and continuous building frontage. This
provides a very efficient use of land with a high building density. On the eastern side
of the Main Street there has been a loss of grain over the years where plots have
been amalgamated. This has detracted from the overall character of the street. As
such, the building widths are much wider with an average dimension of 15m to 20m.
Building depths vary considerably between both sides of the Main Street also. On
average building depths are 26m on the western side of the Main Street and 22m
on the eastern side.
CIVIC/COMMUNITY CORE
Within this character area the building plots are a mixture of detached and semidetached
buildings. On the northern side of Seatown Road the building widths are
at least 25m wide. To the southern edge of Seatown Road at the junction of
Dublin Road and North Street, the widths are significantly less at 10 wide.
Building depths vary considerably between both sides of Seatown Road also. On
the northern side the depth is on average 25m. On the southern side the depths
significantly more at 40m in depth.
COMMERCIAL/RESIDENTIAL
North Street, to the east has a very distinctive tight-knit urban grain, which
breaks away to a looser grain towards the northern end of North Street. North
Street to the west has a poorly defined consistent urban grain with large
setbacks which fails to provide a legible layout. The building width of between
10m and 15m approximately is prevalent on the western side of North Street and
on the eastern side of the Main Street a building width of 20m-30m predominates.
Rhythm generated by subtle variations
to building heights and building lines
S W O R D S M A S T E R P L A N
Quality of Building Frontages
THE RETAIL/COMMERCIAL CORE
The quality of building frontages with a positive contribution to the public realm
are mainly orientated towards the Main Street. There is a significant amount of
negative frontage (frontages that display blank walls or setbacks to the public
realm) particularly to the rear of the Main Street to the west overlooking the river.
CIVIC/COMMUNITY CORE
The quality of building frontages within this area are generally positive. While
there is a series of vacant terraced buildings at the junction of North Street and
the Main Street which present poor frontages to the public realm, Fingal County
Council have the intention to improve the physical quality of the area through a
public realm strategy.
COMMERCIAL/RESIDENTIAL
10m
The quality of building frontages with a negative contribution to the public realm
are limited within this character area. The majority of buildings to the west and
east of North Street present a positive frontage. However at the northern end of
North Street the quality of building frontages diminishes and could be improved
upon greatly.
1 1 8
15m
20m
20m
25m
10m
30m
0 25m
100m
N
Includes Ordnance Survey Ireland data reproduced under OSI Licence No. 2003/07/CCMA/Fingal County Council. © Ordnance Survey Ireland, 2006.
8m