The majority of highly praised apartment developments over the past decade have been sited within one small area of Dublin: Temple Bar, where the authority responsible for the district's refurbishment made a point of commissioning architects to design good work. One of the most recent additions to Temple Bar has been the Wooden Building, a nine-storey block of 17 apartments designed by the De Blacam and Meagher practice.
The structure's highly distinctive exterior is of varnished oak and brick with galvanised steel canopies.
Equally fine materials have been used throughout the interior in which light and space are in generous supply. Given the high quality of finish, as well as the high prices these apartments fetched - the cheapest one-bedroom unit went for £225,000 at auction last March - this is a block likely to retain its value. So too will the Warehouse, a 1950s building off Dublin's Clanbrassil Street which has just been converted into forty-one units by architect Mary Donohoe.
As far as possible, the original internal layout here has been preserved, which means the average ceiling height is 10 feet, every apartment has plenty of large windows and materials from the old warehouse were recycled.
On the top floor, for example, oak parquet flooring dating from the 1950s was relaid. The Warehouse's public areas have not been neglected either: on each floor, the internal courtyard has wide terraces with glass-brick floors. "These aren't for a nomadic, transient population," says Mary Donohoe.
"These apartments are for people who are planning to live in the place."