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A house is excavated and a space created. The insertion of an object allows inhabitation.
The house is on a terrace whose split-section is native to Georgian Dublin; a grand parlor to the front with smaller rooms to the rear at half-levels one up and one down from the street.
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Street front - Before
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Backside - Before
The project begins with removal – of the existing extension, internal walls and earth – bringing the entire house to lower ground-floor level. This opens the volume of the house as a double-height vessel, full of light.
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New street front
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Peeking through the street front window
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New backside
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New backside at night
A cruciform object is inserted; a piece of architectural furniture which spreads tree-like from a concentrated base. Services such as kitchen, toilet, storage and stairwell are housed within this trunk – providing for living and dining in the spaces around it.
Above this, is a platform for sleeping, dressing and study spaces. The four branches of the structure hold various functions – two which span to the side walls act as wardrobes while that to the front is a cantilevered reading desk for the teacher-client. The fourth branch extends through the rear wall and projects two meters beyond it housing a shower room, which is glazed to the sky, reminiscence of the traditional “Georgian return typology”.
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Inserted cruciform object
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Inserted cruciform object
A ledge running along the perimeter wall downstairs expresses the retaining wall which was built against the street and neighboring houses – this doubles as a shelf for the display of books and artifacts in the living and dining areas. Opening out from this ground floor is a generous garden with a simple rendered wall, which hides a secret reading room and bathing area. This private realm extends visually to the rear of the site through a glazed wall, which can be opened allowing for sheltered outdoor bathing.
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Kitchen area
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Kitchen area
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Living space
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Skylight shower room in cantilevered box
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Bathroom
First presented at the arrival platform, the house must be circumambulated before it can be fully understood. At each vantage point the space can be conceived as contained by the existing shell with its double-pitched roof and unaltered openings. The entire house is a continuous yet differentiated volume – only the washrooms are fully enclosed. A complex series of interconnected and overlapping spaces is set up by the architectural insertion and its projections.
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Downstairs hallway
The insertion is constructed with polycarbonate and steel. This lightweight structure is also the primary source of light in the evening – inset fittings cause its translucent surfaces to illuminate the spaces, which it generates above, below and between the object and its container.
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The insertion is constructed with polycarbonate and steel.
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Model photo
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Isometric view
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Isometric view
Architecture Republic focus on the conceptual research and analysis of projects through design studies in the field of architecture, urbanism and landscape design. We are also interested in interdisciplinary collaborative work in art, graphic design, and theater among others.
Architect Maxim Laroussi founded Architecture Republic in 2005. Born in Fez, Morocco, Maxim moved to France at an early age. He graduated from PUC Campinas, Brazil in 1998 and UCD, Dublin in 2002 with a B.Arch. He lived and worked as an architect in various countries including UK, France, Brazil and Ireland before setting up Architecture Republic in Dublin. He was president of the Architectural Association of Ireland from 2005-‐2006 and currently teaches at the School of Architecture in the University of Limerick in Ireland.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License .
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12 Comments
is the concrete painted? or is that something like epoxy?
damn that lucite model is beautiful.
the digital models would probably seem pretty cool if they weren't put next to that, but they really don't come close.
i agree the model is beautiful...i think the project is nice but maybe an overuse of the black trim..
call me an old chump with a laptop, smoking a cigarette and drinking irish whisky, i like the "Backside - Before."
that does not limit me to talk about the new remodel and the architect's concept which contains some corbusian basics as in the master's free plan theory. this is nothing unusual with thousands of trials and iterations since its original appearance in the domino diagram.
materially, this house project is too far carried away with over use of white translucent plastic boards which are noisy to live with and have no substantial insulation properties, endangering the usability of the money shot cantilevered bathroom in colder seasons.
the project's relationship to street and its interiors suggest more of an office or other commercial activity, beyond the all common live/work space.
it is a monument to its creator with a lot of chopped up rooms in a small and precious perimeter to begin with. that's right, a chaise lounge is one of the few things you can furnish that space with, cleared from the un-evolved closet.
technically, in one hand we are given natural light strategies, and on the other, encased electric lights illuminating a showcase.
1 to 5 scale it is a decisive 1.75 or less for this reader.
yes, the model is beautiful as if a scale model of a ship in a bottle sitting over the commode.
as constructed in reality, partially art deco and sometimes post de stijl type of black bordering the lexan panels are cartoonish at best and no where near the weight of the green solid used in the model.
i like the excavation move and not much else.
another thing is, i don't really know if this presentation is real or photoshop in an ungratifying way.
could this house feel as if living in a full scale model and in a series of perspective drawings?
Agreed. Seems pretty out of tune to me. But I do love the glass ceiling in the bathroom.
stunning... beautiful and livable.
hovering somewhere between wittgenstein's house and a domesticated konrad wachsmann.
shower room ftw.
Mondrian has a boner.
Yes, I can see see Orhan's point that it seems a bit commercial..the black borders against the white reminds us all of a Chanel cosmetic display, but at least this space does it with clarity and competence. People will either love or hate it's sterility, and graphic sensibility, but in the end we have to admire that it is a consistent statement...it really is that cosmetic display that grew into a house.....but somehow it makes sense.
perhaps i see irony that was not intended by the architect. like the model, it is precious as a best in show poodle.
monull
Chanel cosmetic display... pretty close on that.
My take is this is straight edge art-nouveau. Black and White outlines for maximum contrast, like Hoffmann's Palais Stoclet; or Beardsley line drawings. AS you say, this is like display signage, like Channel.
The white plexi infill just reinforces the basic graphic theme, and the back-lighting pours on more of the same. We've seen this before during the sixties art-nouveau revival. Op-Art interiors with Black and White graphics, mostly stripes. mainly for optics. The cantilevered room, and frankly all of this design, is consistent in it's visual appearance: Extreme contrast for maximum effect.
eric chavkin
thanks eric...to be specific look at the proportions on the packaging of Chanel Number 5 ........
i
aestheticcaly, it looks great. but I just can't picture myself living there. It's devoid of personal objects. Although I'm no minimalist.
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