Name: Richmond Place House
Location: Rathmines, Dublin 6, Ireland
Destination: Home Room
Architect: Sinead Bourke, Dermot Boyd, Peter Cody, James Corbett, Ryan Kennihan
Engineer: John Casey
Site Area: 121.5m ²
Built Area: 110m ²
Cost: € 250.000
Design and Construction: 2004-2005
Materiality Exterior: Brick, satin anodized aluminum windows
Interior material: White oak, concrete, plaster, rubber
The house is located in a conservation area near the center of Dublin, in a small but prominent corner site at the junction between Mountpleasant Avenue and Richmond Place. It is a small housing that replaces an existing cottage on site. This consists of 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, utility area and a living room spread over three levels. On two floors, the house retains the character of the nearby houses and creates a new front built around Richmond Place, while creating a strong contextual response both to the unusual shape of the site and the excellent architectural context, particularly in the corner of the house immediately opposite Montpleasant Square.
The desire is to occupy the site, maximizing the footprint of the building and visually expanding the living area towards the courtyards formed on each side. The geometry of the site is the main generator of the building. Roughly triangular in shape and with a pronounced curve towards Richmond Place, the house assumes the boundaries of the site along its north and south elevations, and is aligned with the adjacent terrace to the east and west. The resulting form is dug up twice for two input spaces are compressed, the front and a smaller one behind. To maintain the low profile of the block facing Richmond Place, the living is sinking into the ground 750mm, following the natural slope along the site.
The house explodes section to create a series of separate but interconnected spaces of variable size and height, creating a sequence of compression and openness as a circulating around the plant. The master bedroom opens to the stairway to the roof through a desk and a folding screen, forming a continuous spatial potential flow connecting the living room and kitchen downstairs. The kitchen is located on the same level of access and view on the living room, across from the inn's kitchen, with fitted storage opening to the living. Desktop formed by extending the concrete surface in the building, looking west towards the courtyard and the adjacent street. Externally, the house is clad entirely in brick, a direct reference to the houses in the neighborhood. Anodized aluminum windows are flush with the outer skin to accentuate the tension and stress of the two access points. The interior uses a simple palette of materials, white oak for the service areas, concrete, stucco areas to give a reading room for the internal standard.
