House Magazine
Spring - Summer 2005

NORTHERN EXPOSURE

How do you reconcile the need for light and space – including a large open-plan area for living, dining and preparing food – with a narrow garden plot that faces ‘north’? Yet, the decision to build on the north side of the house was predetermined by the fact that this house on Dublin’s tree-lined Griffith Avenue forms part of a consistent ‘edge’, which had to be respected by the project’s architects, Gary Mongey and David Dwyer of Box Architecture. They decided to keep the form of the building intact, when viewed from the road. But, at the back of the site, the house has been transformed with a daringly modern extension.

On approaching the house through the front gate, a new side access becomes apparent, which imitates the conventional garage door arrangement. This produces a spatial enclosure on two edges with the new entrance screen. Vertical timber louvers are used to prevent views into the building. The interior can only be glimpsed, when one steps onto the limestone plate of the entrance. This is the point at which a ‘threshold of understanding’ is achieved. This arrangement also allows for the passive surveillance of the entrance from deep within the house.

Building on the north side of the existing house required the extension to reach as far northwards as possible in order to bring the new spaces outside existing shadow lines. The first floor box (master bedroom) is set back 2-metres from the existing rear wall, in order to create a source of light penetrating deep into the centre of the building. The placement of the ground floor boxes creates a series of indoor and outdoor spaces, including east- and west-facing courtyards.

Planes between the three boxes and the existing house are selectively filled to create further enclosure. All vertical elements are either glass or timber, and are movable, replacing the function of conventional doors. This provides the owners with the opportunity to create many options of spatial layout by folding, sliding and pivoting planes. A large sliding door connects the kitchen with the garden and creates a flexible inside-outside space. The architects decided to continue the natural stone floor of the kitchen onto the terrace to achieve continuity of space.

The most dramatic effect is, however, how light penetrates this north-facing extension through strategically placed courtyards and openings.

Project Team: David Dwyer, Gary Mongey, Peter Gowran, Adrian Curtin and Sinead Cullen

Main Contractor: Pat Keane Construction Ltd.

Structural Engineers: Lohan & Donnelly

www.box.ie