RIAI | Irish Architecture Awards

Citation

Dublin, Over £100,000

This is an example of how the conviction of a design idea translates into a highly useful and attractive building in a location which might have been characterised as a backland, unworthy of such attention. The project has reinforced the streeet wall without compromising its use, and by the appropriate, judicious use of materials and finishes, is detailed to a high standard.

Architect's Comment
This small, three storey office building, located on a small laneway off Capel Street, provides extended office space for a much larger building fronting onto the river Liffey. The principal elevation has a northerly aspect, and is designed to have graduated levels of transparency as each floor rises from the street, substituting degrees of security and protection from the relatively hostile environment of the lane at ground level for greater levels of transparency from glass block to clear glass respectively on the upper floors. The materials and scale are conceived to relate to adjacent stone industrial warehouses. Openable, cedar-wood ventilators are distributed through the glass and glass-block walls, which are unified by a single stainless-steel support frame.