A new Community Residence for people with severe and enduring mental illness provides two independent living apartments and 8 en suite bedrooms, communal living accommodation and support space. The site is the former Tullamore Workhouse now demolished and presently occupied by the HSE Central Offices and Riada House Nursing home, off the Arden Road in Tullamore. The chosen location is in a quiet garden area protected with large stone walls to the south and west.

The design has been developed to provide homely and comfortable living accommodation and arranges the rooms in in two clusters of 4 bedrooms on either side of a core of communal living spaces. Each bedroom opens up onto a private external sitting space and can be customised to individual preference. The building will be realised in a pleasant brick finish to create a domestic scale and to enhance the non-institutional ambiance of the residence. The building is designed to meet high energy efficiency using heat pump technology and heat recovery systems together with well insulated building fabric.