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Michelle Moore from Kielduff.
A KIELDUFF native’s idea won the Overall Award at the Homes for Smart Ageing Universal Design Challenge announced yesterday in Dublin.
Michelle Moore (née Savage) came up ‘The Abhaile Project’ which she founded and developed with well-known architect Dermot Bannon of RTE fame and another architect Ciarán Ferrie.
Michelle — a brother of well-known Tralee publican, George Savage of The Blasket — and her team were delighted when they were announced as winners of the €50,000 top prize by Mr Damien English T.D., Minister for Housing and Urban Development, during an award ceremony at Dublin Castle.
It’s been a busy week for Michelle — who is married with two children and living in Dublin — as news broke last week in the media that she is the lead Lloyd’s of London insurer, Chaucer Dublin, who have just secured approval from the Central Bank to set up a Dublin subsidiary as the company seeks to protect its access to the European Union after Brexit.
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Kielduff native, Michelle Moore, with architects Dermot Bannon and Ciaran Ferrie after winning the award yesterday in Dubin Castle.
The Abhaile Project’s winning entry developed an innovative new model to support older homeowners to reconfigure their family-sized homes by creating an independent living area suitable for the older homeowner, eliminating the need to use the stairs; and creating an affordable one‐bedroomed rental accommodation upstairs.
Using a Universal Design approach, this promotes an efficient way to use our existing housing stock by carving much needed new one‐bedroomed rental capacity from existing housing stock in mature urban areas, allowing the homeowner to live securely and independently downstairs, whilst promoting interaction with the person living upstairs, thereby reducing isolation.
Here’s a description of the project in this video…
Over 60 high-quality entries were received from around the country for the challenge, with five commended entries reaching the final round where they received funding of €10,000 and support to develop their idea further.
The five commended entrants were asked to develop their ideas further in Round 2 of the Challenge. During that stage, the commended entrants were required to build substantive proof that the principles of Universal Design have been considered and that the idea is feasible, cost-effective and has the potential for mainstreaming.
Now here’s a female role model for Kerry natives to look up to! Wow! Well done.