Located in a Dublin suburban estate, which typically features modest 2 storey terraced houses with ostentatiously large and deep rear gardens, this project propose a model for horizontal densification. Here we see how “Back to back” typologies and land subdivision have generated vast areas of under- utilised landlocked stock throughout the country.
The awkward triangular shape of the site generated the pure triangular plan of the house surrounded by three gardens; an entrance garden to the north, a breakfast garden to the east and green garden to the south. The three corners of the house are extended to the edges of the site and are “carved out” to create three porticos which form a series of thresholds, while also articulating the transition between each garden and facilitating continuous movement around the house.
The house is slightly sunken and the slopes of the roof shaped to minimize overshadowing onto the neighbouring gardens. The windows are carefully located to avoid overlooking while framing important views, sky, trees, sunlight, etc.
The house plays with the “traditional ingredients” of a the typical suburban house with its blue grey pitch roof, painted render, attic rooms, velux windows, French doors, sliding doors, etc in order to “ fit in”. Structurally the house is made out of reinforced concrete wall left exposed internally and insulated and render externally.
Internally, the rooms are organized around a central triangular stair case. The finished floor level is sunk 500 mm below ground level. The modest-height ceiling at the entrance level increases gradually when descending to the corners of the house where a series of double height spaces pierced with a skylights accentuate the scale of the rooms below onto which the corner rooms at the first floor level look.The building overall creates a compact and dynamic series of interconnected spaces where family life unfold, while still allowing the individual to have a corner of their own.
