Fiona and Tom loved their location close to the Botanic Gardens and local schools, but had three particular issues with their home in Glasnevin:
!. The family spent a lot of time in their tiny kitchen with room for only a very small table.
2. Poor access to the sunny south-facing garden.
3. Only one Shower room that had to be accessed between the two main bedrooms.
The two boys had built their own summer camp in the back garden for themselves and their little sister to play in.
They proudly showed us their facilities that included a sandpit, hopscotch path, table and chairs, football pitch and racetrack area for pedal karts...
The garden was important, the centre of the universe to the kids and their friends who played there after school and throughout the summer.
The existing kitchen with its small table, lacked worktop space and had low ceilings and a door providing the only access to the garden.
The walls of the old chimney breast were covered with drawings and paintings by the younger residents and photos from disney land.
The new kitchen was to be spacious, bright, with a large table, connected to the garden and living area. We needed more exhibition space for the expanding collection by young artists.
The front and rear living rooms were connected together but isolated from the rear garden.
The front room faced north and the existing house had no insulation and single glazed aluminium windows. (Fiona and Tom both successfully pleaded innocent to besmirching of this fine house through shoddy fenestration!)
We would make the old house warmer and more energy efficient.
The rear living room looked out onto a dead-end space of uneven patio with flaking walls on three sides.
This room served as a playroom and toy storage. It was also the location of Fiona's cramped computer workstation.
We would create a bright spacious new workstation where she could pursue her passion for art.
Apart from a small toilet under the stairs, the only shower-room in the house was a box partition with no natural light that could only be accessed between the two main bedrooms.
This was not ideal for a growing family so our new design would incorporate a bright purpose-built bathroom and also the long desired en-suite. We also needed to remove the old inefficient cylinder from the bedroom press to a new hot press with a super- insulated dual coil cylinder.
Using a process of sketching and model making, we started exploring various configurations of spaces and functions.
We sought to maximise the space and open the house up to the south-facing garden without making the existing house and new rooms on the ground floor too dark.
The bedroom was to exploit the views across the city way down to the Sugar Loaf Mountain.
With planning permission granted we began to explore the interior spaces in greater detail.
We used the expertise of Laura and Caroline, interior design students from Lyon who joined us for work experience last summer.
They built this great model showing the internal spaces and we used this to decide upon organisation, lighting and finishes.
Click here to see the construction in progress...