RIAI | Irish Architecture Awards

Citation

Dublin (over €3,000,000)

Complex issues of scale, context, proportion and material are addressed with skill and confidence, producing a building which rests easily on its site, mediating between streetscape and Mansion House.

Architects Comments
The commission from Dublin City Council was to provide a high quality speculative office building which would be let on the open market.

The site was a vacant lot adjacent to the Mansion House, the Lord Major’s official residence, on its southern side and was used as a surface carpark. It therefore constituted a break in the urban fabric, exposing the gables of adjoining properties and the interior of the city block.

A right of way between the Mansion House and the proposed building had to be maintained to allow access to multi-storey carparking within the city block. The Mansion House itself is set back from the street line and establishes a rectangular forecourt parallel to Dawson Street which it addresses. This forecourt is contained as its northern end by the flank of the Royal Irish Academy with its plain rendered façade & punched openings.

The building had five floors of flexible office accommodation over a basement carpark. It is L shaped in configuration. This is achieved by setting back the main volume of the building from the street edge allowing the opening up of a diagonal view of the Mansion House from the south. The general height of the building is five storeys at this point while the forward section which is directly on the street is four floors in height. The flank of the building is further modified to achieve a four storey and three-storey scale where it addresses the Mansion House more directly. The fenestration at this point is in the form of a large serrated glazed screen of opal non-transparent glass so that direct overlooking is avoided.

The setback volume of the building is clad in Jura Limestone in deference to the general colour of the Mansion House precinct while the forward element is clad in red sandstone to visually connect with the adjacent brick buildings on the street. The use of this contrasting material has, in addition, the effect of reducing the overall visual mass of the building while at the same time increasing the perception of depth of the site. The sandstone element is stack bonded and its glazing is either flush with the wall plane or forward of it. In contrast the punched openings in the limestone have recessed glazing with aluminium liners to the reveals. The limestone is in stretcher bond configuration. In general terms the building is a particular response in terms of scale, formal arrangement, architectural language and colour to a complex urban context on what is regarded as one of the finest streets in the city.

Client Comments
Shay Cleary was selected through competitive interview to design the building in 1998. This was one of the first initiatives by the Economic Development Unit whose brief is to look at the potential development of properties in the ownership of Dublin City Council.

Both in terms of urban design issues and architectural quality I believe this to be one of the finest office buildings of its type in the city because of its subtle response to a highly complex city centre environment. As such it can be regarded as a benchmark for future City Council developments as well as being a potential model for private developers because it succeeds in being a very fine piece of contemporary architecture while at the same time respecting its historic surroundings.

Jim Barrett, City Architect