This end of terrace Victorian two-storey over basement house in south Dublin required modernization and additional space for the needs of the clients’ growing family.


The brief was to provide additional multifunctional living space and bedroom accommodation not provided for within the original house. The existing two-storey return was at a scale not befitting such a large house with cramped internal dimensions making the spaces unusable.


The design creates a rear return more suitable in scale and playful in nature with an orthogonal emphasis reflecting that of the original terrace.

Traditionally, Victorian returns consist of a series of functional and subservient spaces to the main house. The design exploits this premise, in the creation of a series of generously proportioned multifunctional spaces, accommodating the contemporary needs not afforded by a typical Victorian House, spaces envisaged for working, playing, bathing and sleeping.
The functional materiality of the proposal is selected in response to the existing condition of unpainted render at the rear terrace and the subordinate functional spaces contained therein.

Light grey zinc foil wraps a series of voids and colourfully glazed projections draping the spaces enclosed therein.

The reflectivity and solidity of the zinc contrasts the flat darkness of the voids and window openings, in the creation of a sculptural form, which sits in deference against the main wall of the house.

A new canopy over the existing side passage encloses the dining area in a transition space between the interior and exterior, which along with a new staircase from the main floor creates a new dialogue between the lower ground floor garden and the piano nobile, so often ignored in the conversion of this type of dwelling.

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