Swords Masterplan - Fingal County Council

Active frontage
Provided by a building or other feature whose use is directly accessible from the
street or space which it faces; the opposite effect to a blank wall.
Architectural features
Doors, windows, cornices and other features which contribute to the overall
design and architecture of a building.
Backland Development
Development which takes place to the rear of existing structures fronting a street
or roadway.
Building types
The building typologies in the area. For example terrace, detached, block etc.
Building heights and massing
The combined effect of the height and bulk of a building or group of buildings.
Context
The setting of a site or area, including factors such as traffic, activities and land
uses as well as landscape and built form.
Elevation
The façade of a building.
Enclosure
The use of buildings to create a sense of defined space.
Landmark
A building or structure that stands out from its background by virtue of height,
size or some other aspect of design.
Legibility
The degree to which a place can be easily understood and traversed.
Permeability
The degree to which an area has a variety of pleasant, convenient and safe routes
through it.
S W O R D S M A S T E R P L A N
Appendix 3 Glossary
Protected structures
A building, feature, site, or structure identified in the Development Plan as worthy
of protection or preservation in accordance with the Planning and Development
Act 2000.
Public open space
The areas created and operated for benefit of the public and which are open to
public (i.e., park, square, playground, etc.).
Safety and security
The discouragement to wrong-doing by the presence of passers-by or the ability
of people to be seen from surrounding windows.
Topography
A description or representation of artificial or natural features on or of the ground.
Threshold Zone
An area of land that separates private space and buildings from public space,
such as a small front garden.
Typology
A study of building types. Examples include bungalows, terraced housing, semidetached
housing, detached housing etc.
Urban grain
The pattern of the arrangement and size of buildings and their plots in a
settlement; and the degree to which an area’s pattern of street-blocks and street
junctions is respectively small and frequent, or large and infrequent.
Views
What is visible from a particular point.
Vista
An enclosed view, usually a long and narrow one.
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