INTERIORS:The architect's brief for this Dublin house was to create a space that would work as a creche, writes Eoin Lyons
IT MIGHT SEEM contradictory, but when Dublin-based architect Jim Lawlor took on the design of an extension to a redbrick Edwardian house in Monkstown, Co Dublin, he decided on an approach that would integrate the new structure with the existing house, while also defining it as a separate space.
For the client, Niamh O'Reilly, the extension was designed not as an extra living area but a workspace. She runs a small creche for babies and wanted to create a place where her young charges would be comfortable and safe. "I didn't want it to be totally separate from the main house," she explains. "It also had to potentially work as a dining or living room in the future."
Jim Lawlor is known for working with young clients who are into design but who may not have a limitless budget. He understands what they want and is clever about getting the most out of a brief. "The existing building is a two-storey detached residence on approximately half an acre," says Lawlor. "The brief was to demolish the existing single-storey extension to the side and construct a new one which would incorporate a nursery facility with separate access and open up and expand the existing kitchen and dining area to provide more space and light and open up views to the garden."
Lawlor's design solution was to create two new single-storey extensions to the side and rear (linked by a glazed corridor) in a contemporary style which did not attempt to replicate the look of the existing house. "The extension is an active contrast to the existing building," says Lawlor.
The creche has its own entrance to the side of the house. Once inside the door, a long corridor leads the visitor to the main area at the rear.
The corridor runs parallel to the original house. The brick wall, which was once the exterior wall of the original house, has been left exposed. It's a simple touch but one which reflects Lawlor's view that an extension does not have to meld with the existing house but can stand apart from it style-wise.
The new kitchen can be accessed from the existing hall inside the main house or from the new corridor in the extension via a sliding timber screen. The main room is at a lower level (just a few steps down) than the rest of the extension. This was a practical decision as well as a design feature. It means that from here, O'Reilly can see the children as she walks into the room from the adjoining kitchen.
One of the most striking things about this extension is the amount of daylight that fills the space on the greyest day. "Even in the winter I don't turn on the lights until late in the afternoon," says O'Reilly.
Apart from the angled roof-light over the walkway, the new aluminium-framed sliding doors in the play area run across the entire rear wall and are supplemented by a long strip of rooflight above. A sliding oak-framed door leads to the kitchen, which is also part of the extension. Here, floor-to-ceiling windows create an L shape with views to the garden.
"The original kitchen, which we built onto, was quite dark," says Lawlor. The new kitchen was supplied by Delgrey kitchens in Co Wicklow, a supplier Lawlor recommends for quality kitchens that don't cost the earth.
The materials used connect the different areas within the extension. The oak in the sliding door is mirrored in the oak ledge on the low wall that overlooks the play area. "The oak and limestone tile floors, white walls and clean lines enhance the focus of space and light." The external walls of the creche area are cladded with western red cedar boards but it's inside that Lawlor walks the line between creating a modern building and one that has a softness that makes it suitable as a place for the care of toddlers.
Jim Lawlor can be contacted at 01-4002972 or
e-mail office@meltedsnow.net