A Place for Home (Rural Spatial Planning) EE19 Ep1

Duncan Stewart looks at the social implications of Ireland's extraordinary number of one-off homes across Ireland’s countryside and searches for sustainable solutions to Ireland's housing problems.
Ireland is one of the most sprawled out countries in all of Europe and that unique settlement pattern has brought with it unintended consequences for life in rural Ireland.
The environmental, economic and social impact of one-off homes is unfortunately disproportionately large, from the cost of maintaining roads and providing services like post, broadband and waste management to the lack of transport options for our ageing rural dwellers, which can lead to isolation. Despite all we now know about the unsustainable nature of this housing pattern, it still continues. In this episode Duncan meets with planners, architects, rural dwellers and policy makers to ask what the legacy of Ireland’s one-off houses are, and what the rural communities of the future could look like with modern, clustered living solutions- which are already starting to emerge.

[@tommybreen9677]

One off houses scattered along roads are such an eye sore

[@nealroche1652]

Great reporting as usual. Appreciate Duncan’s mea culpa that he too built a one off house that with hindsight was a mistake.

[@kevinhiggins5940]

As somebody who is 26, living with my parents in Dublin & with a wealth of work experience since 17... This sort of stuff is truly inspiring. Such a pity the gov doesn't have a rural relocation programme for folks like me who are dying to move out

[@toyotaprius79]

Sure that means confronting the private housing market. It gets _awfully_ political.

[@richardbeadle2486]

Really helpful video -the one off housing is a real issue (& I live in one!) that needs to be rethought. Rural Ireland is to undergo a huge revolution in the next years in the face of the climate and biodiversity issues. To allow landscapes for nature - floodplains, upland carbon stores etc , forests & reduce cars, while allowing rural communities to thrive this is a primary issue to be addressed.

[@JamieHarte]

Well said.

[@DroneFoxIreland]

Super Video .... Top class

[@deniska0]

Cloughjordan is mish mash village, there seems no structure, just a green field with randomly designed houses on it, no defined streets with shop fronts, no defined public spaces and squares, just another housing estate just even more chaotic, with more green and less cars. No character or typology. Good idea went wrong somewhere along the way.

[@garry8390]

Trading people for small scale regenerative farming employs more people in rural areas, produces higher quality produce and sequesters co2... What's not to love....oh except the one off housing.

[@jeremiaharyeetey9877]

Are the green areas more like farmlands?

[@jamesdaly1401]

It be great if we had lets say we had a company like bord na mona and it employed local people there by keep towns and villages alive in rural area....oh wait.

[@jeremiaharyeetey9877]

How many acres?