The house & site comprised a slender irregularly-shaped plot, rising slightly from front to rear defined primarily by brick & local stone, parts of the building dating from the 1800’s, if not before, with a storied history as a hunting lodge, a school, a boarding house & now a dwelling.
Its newest iteration serves a contemporary dwelling for a professional couple. The design slots the home into its’ cranked stepped narrow site, inhaling and exhaling to provide small internal & external circulation spaces - porch, link passage, stile - connecting larger internal & external living spaces.
Materials have been carefully considered, to continue the story of the building in memory and experience. Concrete is used in various forms throughout, original brick & stone are retained, exposed & celebrated. Iroko joinery & exposed traditional roof details helps create a sense of home. An oak front door handle, its curves reminiscent of the shoreline, provides the first tactile interaction between visitor & house.
The front garden, enjoying a full panorama of Dublin Bay is detailed & planted in a manner intended to acknowledge its windswept locale. Beyond the entrance porch, which acts like an air-lock between the openness of the front garden & that of the main double-height space of the kitchen / living / dining area, the house draws the visitor to the kitchen, located right to the heart of the plot.
Beyond, a narrowing corridor passes two courtyards before entering a living space which opens directly out onto the rear garden. This, while relating in materiality and design to the front garden, creates a completely contrasting sense, that of an enclosed, sheltered courtyard with the slowly rising ground continuing to finally form the Ben of Howth beyond.
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