In old cities, historic buildings like churches, public buildings and houses are wedged into a dense urban fabric among swathes of different housing typologies. As monuments, they represent that particular society’s shared values. The more run-of-the-mill dwellings, on the other hand, reveal the more intimate private character of the place.
Today as in the past, far reaching urban transformation still requires symbols and monuments to embody a community’s shared values. But cities are also renewed through small-time, private renovation that often goes unheralded.
Lorcan O’Herlihy Architects (LOHA) has intervened radically on an historic site in old Dublin once partly occupied by a late 19th century coach house. The brief was to preserve the façade of the former coach house that once occupied the site and ensure it be visible from an adjacent Georgian Manor. The physical and regulatory constraints of the place and its history became the point of departure for a contemporary programme that has succeeded in creating an intimate, respectful resonance with its historic surrounds.
The Georgian façade became the pivot around which the new residential spaces have been distributed in an alternating series of solids and voids, with environments on different levels providing crosscutting views. All outer walls and the open, intermediary spaces between public and private areas have maintained their continuity with the surrounding urban fabric, conforming to its rules. Breaches in the original stone perimeter wall give views of the original façade and new build.
From the mews-side entry court a covered passageway leads toward an interior courtyard separating the old façade from the new glazed volume with converging pitched roofs. The kitchen and dining area face onto the interstitial court while the living zone and master bedroom overlook a rear garden. From here a distribution circuit leads to other levels of...
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