Co-living reimagined at Liberties House

Liberties House is reshaping Dublin 8’s oldest trading district with a bold new and well-connected co-living scheme in the city’s historic heart.

Home of Guinness and the historic St Patrick’s Cathedral, The Liberties sits at the heart of Dublin 8. The recently completed Liberties House residential development is setting a new co-living standard for this famous neighbourhood.

Developed by Crossroads Real Estate in partnership with Lugus Capital and Grayling Properties as local asset manager, this premium development delivered 371 fully furnished studio apartments and top-class facilities designed by world renowned interior architect, Concrete Amsterdam. Concrete creates environments with a sense of belonging, bringing society together through the Dutch word for society, directly translating to ‘living together’.

Unlocking design potential

Climate resilience was high on the agenda, and inspired by this goal, our team provided multidisciplinary support for the scheme. Working alongside C+W O’Brien Architects, this saw our civil engineering specialists incorporate Sustainable Drainage Systems, including the provisions of green roofing, permeable paving, filter drains, green spaces and tree planting, throughout our design solution. Alongside this, storm water runoff is restricted to the greenfield equivalent rate, with attenuation storage provided to temporarily hold excess rainfall during large storms.

With an eye on minimising carbon-intensive waste, our structural design consists of multiple recase elements. This included a concrete frame of hollow core floor slabs, concrete cross walls above first floor level and an in-situ reinforced concrete frame between basement level and first floor level. At ground floor level, the 1,608 sq ft café, reception and shared amenity spaces required an open, spacious and column-free structural solution. As a result, our design included precast cross walls above first floor level designed as deep beams which minimised the need for reinforced concrete transfer beams within the structure, helping to maintain the open-plan layout below.

Due to extensive archaeological features and a high water table, the site required a carefully designed and managed piled foundation solution. To deliver this, a complex de-watering regime was developed and implemented during the basement excavation to avoid the ground water becoming contaminated by the excavation of the made ground.

Our electrical design brings together cutting-edge technology and functionality. A high-tech LED lighting scheme runs throughout the entire building, blending functional, decorative, and emergency lighting. These systems are controlled via DALI protocols and local presence detection, ensuring energy efficiency without compromising user experience. There is full access control coverage throughout the premises with CCTV both internally and externally adding additional security.

Heating and hot water are primarily delivered by two roof-mounted Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHPs), which feed into dedicated buffer vessels. The low-carbon solution handles the majority of the building’s thermal load and when required gas fired boilers and water heaters can supplement the heating and hot water systems. Each bedroom is equipped with individual humidity fans and heating controls, allowing tenants to tailor their environments personally. Communal areas benefit from a roof-mounted Air Handling Unit (AHU) supported by DX refrigerant condensers, providing both heating and cooling.