Jigsaw Dublin : Architecture Information + Images

Jigsaw McCullough Mulvin JIGSAW - LEESON PARK, DUBLIN, IRELAND photos : Ros Kavanagh Material choice and a will for limpid, calm spaces dictated a language of paradox for this horizontal form, extension to a Victorian house in Dublin. Board marked concrete was poured to walls, floor and roof to form a textured tube, yet this weighty rectangle skates lightly across the original return of the house, trapping a small courtyard behind and generating a tension between the expected gravitas of the concrete and its expression to the garden as a calm, horizontal form, floating above the terrace. The materiality of the tube is underscored by huge circular rooflights which mark the passage of light throughout the day on walls and floor. A splayed ramp tethers the new garden space to the ground floor of the house, glazed walls to the trapped courtyard space offering views of a mature Japanese maple in gravel. Boardmarked concrete walls and ceiling are finished in a light, translucent wash, a wall lining of black American walnut at one end forms bookshelves and surrounds a stove which can be enclosed to form an intimate study for winter evenings by pivoting a large black walnut door out from the wall. A sedum roof with thyme was planted on the roof of the new structure, linking to views of the garden beyond from the main reception rooms of the house. photos : Christian Richters Valerie Mulvin McCullough Mulvin Architects Jigsaw Dublin images / information from McCullough Mulvin Architects