Project: House in South Dublin
Architects: Arigho Larmour Wheeler Architects
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Completed 2019
Photo Credits: Aisling McCoy
Text by Arigho Larmour Wheeler Architects
Constructed in the 1950’s, the existing house in South Dublin had been extended twice in the last 20 years in an ad hoc manner leading to poor spatial layout internally. Keen to maximise the potential of the house for the comfort and enjoyment of their family, while also addressing the poor thermal performance of the existing building, the client brief called for a complete reorganisation and refurbishment of the house, along with a new extension allowing them to connect better with the garden.
Our proposal sought to strip back all extraneous elements resulting from previous extensions, resolving to provide instead a more fluid and coherent organisation. Our proposal removed an existing north facing conservatory, re-modelling the ground floor plan and extending it to take advantage of available daylight. A more immediate relationship is established with the garden beyond framed by a deep concrete and brick canopy.
A rich palette of natural materials including polished concrete, wooden floor, handmade brick and cast in-situ concrete gives each area of the house a feeling of softness, tactility and robustness. At ceiling level, a cast in-situ concrete cornice sets a datum above which pockets of ceiling modulate, describing and defining the different spaces for living, cooking and dining below. Roof lights set into this modulating ceiling allows light from various orientations to be introduced throughout the day.
Typical of many homes of the period, the house was poorly insulated, and our clients wanted to bring the house up to current building standards. To meet these requirements, we wrapped the house externally to insulate and built a new tegral-tile clad roof off the existing structure, providing a coherent and unified exterior finish and form which is complemented by the handmade brick lined entrance threshold and garden canopy.
