Greater Dublin could occupy an area the size of Los Angeles by 2010 if it continues to expand at its current rate, according to a leading architect.
But Mr Tony Reddy, director of Anthony Reddy Associates, said Greater Dublin could end up with a population of just under two million - less than a quarter of Los Angeles, "a city not known for its urban form or sustainability".
Addressing a conference in Dublin on the theme of higher density housing, Mr Reddy said many architects and planners preferred to ignore suburbia, "hoping that it will prove to be as inconsequential as it is distasteful".
But the reality in Ireland, as in most Western cultures, was that the suburbs were "here to stay". They were now the predominant form of settlement and, unless this fact was confronted, they would continue to develop in an untrammelled manner.
By refusing to recognise the impact that suburbia is having on our towns and cities, and concentrating their efforts solely on model inner-city renewal and infill projects, architects and planners were unlikely to find successful solutions, he warned.
Concerns about the quantity of homes needed to cope with Ireland's growing population were "based mainly on the quality of what has been built before and on the traffic implications of continuing this form of development".
Mr Reddy said the key to good design in the suburbs was to design places first and roads second. New housing estates should be built to create good communities, rather than laid out on a hierarchy of roads, as had been the case in the past.
He also stressed the need to overcome misconceptions that higher density housing meant "high-rise". Many of Dublin's most desirable suburbs, such as Ranelagh or Drumcondra, had higher densities per acre than high-rise schemes, he said.
But a leading planning consultant told the conference that radical changes in the form and layout of higher density housing areas "may initially prove hard to swallow" because they meant the end of "two-storey, three-bed only" housing estates.
Mr Tony Manahan, director of Anthony Manahan and Associates, said new area-action plans being drawn up by local authorities in the Dublin area should produce more distinctive and more varied residential areas, with a greater mix of occupants.
"If the area action plans are implemented as they now appear, the estates of the future will have a mixture of houses, apartments, duplexes and town houses, which will be suitable for single people, families as well as older people."
Housing densities would be greatly increased and, as a result of the push for more efficient use of space, people would have to get used to not being able to park outside their houses. Instead, there would be more shared car-parking zones.
The changes would put more pressure on architects, Mr Manahan said. "Instead of coming up with one house design, which can be copied again and again, architects will have to come up with six or seven design concepts for each estate."
Mr Arthur Hickey, president of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, described higher density housing as "the only sustainable alternative" to continued suburban sprawl and to the spread of one-off housing throughout the countryside.
"Apart from blotting out our landscapes, such forms of development are unsustainable in terms of schools, shops, services, water, gas, electricity, sewerage, rubbish, community care and roads. We must stop and we must stop now," he declared. "All local authorities, either in urban or rural areas, need to address this issue.
Mr Hickey urged the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey - whose Department jointly organised the conference with the RIAI and the Irish Planning Institute - to consider imposing minimum density standards for all new housing schemes.
