What We Do

Site Feasibility & Development Appraisal

Every viable project begins with a rigorous appraisal. We work with landowners, developers and investment funds at the earliest stage — before significant capital is committed — to establish what a site can realistically deliver.

This means testing planning potential, assessing massing and yield, identifying the constraints that matter and, critically, those that don't. Our appraisals are grounded in an understanding of Ireland's planning frameworks and the commercial metrics that determine whether a project is worth pursuing.

We help clients make better decisions earlier, with less risk.

This service is right for you if:

• You own or are acquiring a site and need to understand its development potential
• You need a credible feasibility study before approaching funders or planning
• You want to test multiple development scenarios before committing to one

Planning Applications & Pre-Application Strategy

Planning uncertainty is one of the greatest sources of risk in Irish development. Delays erode margins, undermine investor confidence and cause otherwise viable projects to stall. Our approach to planning is designed to reduce that risk — not by chance, but by method.

We engage with planning authorities early, structure our submissions to the standard that planning officers expect, and make design decisions with the planning context in mind from day one. The result is a higher probability of first-time consent within the statutory period.

Our experience spans residential, commercial and mixed-use applications across Dublin City Council, Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, Fingal and South Dublin jurisdictions, including sensitive city-centre and protected streetscape contexts.

This service is right for you if:

• You need a planning application prepared and managed from pre-application to decision
• You have a complex or sensitive site that requires a planning-literate design approach
• You've had a previous application refused and need a fresh strategic assessment
  

Commercial Refurbishment & Brown-to-Green Conversion

There is a significant stock of Dublin office and commercial buildings that are structurally sound but commercially stranded — ageing fabric, poor energy ratings, and a specification no longer aligned with the expectations of today's occupiers or institutional investors.

We see these assets not as problems, but as opportunity.

Our Brown-to-Green refurbishment service combines architectural redesign, MEP reengineering and fabric-first energy strategy to reposition underperforming commercial assets for the contemporary market. We understand how sustainability funding works and how projects must be structured to access it. We work with the planning framework, not against it.

The outcome is a building that performs at the top of the market — energy-efficient, architecturally coherent, and capable of commanding the rental levels and occupier profile its location deserves.

This service is right for you if:

• You own or manage a commercial building with a poor BER rating facing obsolescence
• You are an asset manager or private real estate trust seeking to reposition an underperforming asset
• You want to access sustainability funding but need a practice experienced in navigating those routes
  

Low-Rise Medium-Density Residential Design

Ireland's housing crisis is not solely a question of numbers. It is a question of typology. The conventional choice between apartment blocks and one-off housing fails to make efficient use of urban land, community infrastructure or planning policy potential.

Low-Rise Medium-Density (LRMD) housing offers a third way — and one that is increasingly supported by national planning policy. Our LRMD typologies are designed to be replicable, cost-efficient and planning-literate: schemes that deliver genuine density without the financial and planning complexity of high-rise residential.

We work with local authorities, housing associations, developers and landowners to bring forward LRMD schemes that are economically viable, spatially generous and built for the long term.

This service is right for you if:

• You are a developer or local authority with residential land in a suburban or transitional urban location
• You need a housing scheme that meets policy requirements without the cost profile of full apartment development
• You want an architectural practice that understands residential viability, not just residential design

Design Development & Planning Delivery

For clients who have an established site strategy and need an architectural practice to carry it through to planning consent and beyond, we provide a comprehensive design development and delivery service.

Our team leads projects from Stage 2 concept through detailed design, planning documentation, consultant coordination and statutory submission. We maintain design integrity across the full process — ensuring that the quality of the original concept survives the pressures of budget, programme and planning negotiation.

We use advanced BIM workflows throughout, which reduces coordination risk, improves construction certainty and provides clients with a higher level of technical clarity at every stage.

This service is right for you if:

• You need a practice to take an agreed scheme through to planning and beyond
• You require full technical documentation and construction-stage architecture services
• You want BIM integration as a standard part of the delivery process, not an optional extra

Architect-Led Project Structuring & Client Advisory

Not every engagement begins with a design brief. Some of our most valuable work happens at the stage before a brief exists — when a client is assembling a project, structuring a development, or trying to understand what professional team they need and in what order.

John Dobbin provides strategic advisory services to developers, asset managers and landowners at this early stage: helping to frame the project, identify the right professional appointments, and navigate the planning and development landscape with clarity.

This is architecture operating at its most strategic — and, for many clients, its most commercially significant.

This service is right for you if:

• You are an investor or landowner new to the Irish development market
• You need an experienced architect to help structure a project before committing to a full team
• You want independent, commercially grounded advice at the pre-development stage