Not By Bricks Alone is a programme that looks at Dublin suburban housing. What is it like to live in the suburban housing estates of Ballyfermot or Santry or the new tower blocks of Ballymun?
Adelaide Waldron talks about living on the fourteenth floor of a Ballymun tower block. Vonnie Evans who lives in Santry and John Sweeney who has lived for 21 years in Ballyfermot talk about the lack of planning and the feeling of isolation living in these housing estates. All three residents talk of the poor planning and lack of thought for those who are going to live in these new developments. They describe a lack of community felt by many living in modern urban houses.
Architect, Kenneth Madden, community social worker, Inga Muse, psychiatrist, Dr Ivor Browne and priest, Father Eugene Kennedy give their professional opinions on these housing developments. They discuss the building of the wrong type of houses. Houses that are often badly designed and cramped. The lack of the involvement of people who will live in the houses at the planning stage.
What effect are modern housing developments having on the people who live in them? The programme shows women at work in the home and footage of Ballymun, Ballyfermot and Santry.