Medical Residential Treatment and Recovery Centre at Dublin Simon Community

The Dublin Simon Community has a well-established Medical Residential Treatment and Recovery Centre located at 25-26 Ushers Island and Island House, Island Street in Dublin 8.

The proposed development will expand and enhance the current service by providing a new 70 bedroom purpose built Treatment and Recovery Centre

The primary function of the proposed building is to provide adequate space for alcohol and drug treatment programmes and recovery needs of people experiencing homelessness as part of a planned and coordinated approach by the Dublin Simon Community. The service aims to improve health outcomes for the most vulnerable in society including those with addiction, mental health issues and those who are risk of homeless and who are homeless.

The design for the proposed new Dublin Simon Community building has been carefully considered in response to its site context along Dublin’s quays at Ushers Island.

The proposed building is six storeys in height, with the sixth storey stepped back to the north and to the west. The building has been designed so that a series of building forms are broken by large ‘vertical slits’ which split the building to reduce the significant mass and scale, allowing the building to step up from the quays towards the higher cityscape to the south.

The design of the building has been developed with a common approach to materials based on pattern of historic and contemporary materials currently visible along the quays. The principal material is a traditional red brick in which the main building forms are expressed. There are accents of pressed metal panels and corten steel to give emphasis to key secondary elements such as the main entrance along Watling Street and windows to more public areas at the corner of Usher’s Island and Watling Street.