MEASURES to maximise the reuse of existing buildings and to ban the "continual sprawl of our cities" are being promoted by the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland in a policy document issued to coincide with the forthcoming general election.
The aim of the document is to "provoke public discussion on the development of a sustainable built environment", according to the RIAI, which says the State should "pro-actively promote the construction of buildings which stand the test of time".
Mr John Graby, the institute's director, said many of the buildings being constructed today with the aid of tax incentives - especially blocks packed with small apartments - would not last for 100 years because they could not easily be adapted.
"As we have seen from Ballymun, the cost of demolishing such unadaptable buildings is enormous in financial terms and the environmental cost is even higher," he said, adding that the creation of "sustainable neighbourhoods" must be the priority.
"This means integrating living, working, shopping and cultural interaction, so that in our towns, cities and suburbs autonomous motorised transport is not a necessity," according to Mr Graby, who conceded this would require a radical change in planning policy.
It would mean banning continual sprawl on the periphery of cities and towns. "If we adopt such a policy, we have hard choices to make about the more effective use of available land in urban areas, with a greater emphasis on infill and higher density development".
From an environmental viewpoint, according to the RIAI's policy document, it was "clearly desirable to maximise the re-use of existing buildings". However, it points out that government policy in a number of critical areas "discriminates against such re-use".
The imposition of stamp duty on the sale of all second-hand houses and the restriction of first-time house-buyers' grants to new houses "combine to make the purchase of second-hand homes distinctly unattractive for many new home buyers", the document says.
Calling for incentives for the refurbishment of listed buildings, he said the Government should "immediately" implement the findings of a technical working group amending current regulations which often left developers "with no option but to demolish and build anew".
Mr Graby said tax breaks for new buildings should be conditional on achieving high standards of energy efficiency. The State also had a responsibility to end the present situation whereby "people without any technical or professional training, whatsoever can design buildings.
The RIAI also wants all building and infrastructure projects seeking public funding to be audited for architectural quality and environmental impact.
