Harbour Point, Bray, Co. Wicklow
The residential led development in the Coastal Quarter at Harbour Point was the first application for planning permission in a wider masterplan on the former Bray Golf Course lands in Wicklow. Lands which represent an area of strategic importance to the town of Bray and the surrounding areas.
With the opening of the railway to Bray in 1854 Bray developed along its seafront where the Promenade was lined with grand urban villas. In contrast with the centre of Bray the golf course lands to the north of the town have remained largely undeveloped since the establishment of Bray golf course in 1897.
By their very nature golf courses form an impenetrable boundary around their perimeter and as Bray developed around the golf course, the connectivity with the town centre became more distant. The proposed design opens up connectivity and helps to link the town back together again using a series of public routes and spaces to provide an excellent example now larger of the 15 Minute City concept where all key social and economic services are within a 15 minute walk from the heart of the development.
The proposed new buildings draw on Bray’s unique history as a Victorian resort town that has bestowed it with an urban morphology characterised by two, three, and in places four storey terraced houses and mansion blocks of a scale and grandeur rarely found in Irish provincial towns.
