City garage motors into first place

By Tommy Baker

The Examiner (Property Section), November 20, 1999

ONE of the most humdrum building projects likely to be done in a building make over, the garage conversion has scooped a national architecture award.

Often, the garage conversion project is considered so mundane it is simply handed over to a builder, who simply replaces the garage door with a window, puts in a radiator, door and light, and the job oxo.

The new Dublin partnership Box Architecture put more thought and work into a design for a conversion job at Dublin home, and as a result won the Opus Building of the Year Award at the recent Plan Expo for their £20,000 extension.

It was designed by Bolton Street graduates David Dwyer and Gary Mongey of Box Architecture, and was a conversion of an existing garage space alongside a detached 1950s Dublin estate house.

They drew light into the room from the front, back and side, and literally on top of this created raised glazed sections in the roof as well to bring in both north and south facing light.

The light patterns change internally right throughout the day, said David Dwyer. "You get really interesting reaction when it rains, when it seems water flows down the walls."

The clients are Oliver and Carol Whelan, and the room is multi-purpose for family use, and has scope in later years to be a gallery for the owner Oliver Whelan is a practising artist.

The drive in front of the former garage was re-routed to the house, to make a private area in front of the new room created with a deck put in front on the new space.

Over 65 entries were received for the competition. Senior architect with the OPW Ciaran O'Connor who chaired the judging panel said: "It was uplifting to see the creative effort expended by the architects in tackling the normally mundane brief in a low-cost garage with intelligence, ingenuity and innovation."

The room adds about 300 sq ft of living space, and is open to the main house through a glazed door to the kitchen, allowing more light into the existing dwelling in the process.