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Asking price: €3.25m Agent: Sherry FitzGerald (01) 4966066 You’ve heard about the mint with the hole. Meet O House, the house with a geometrically perfect circular porthole at its centre. Located at 10 Palmerston Villas in Dublin 6, the property is one of those built by ‘boutique’ developer Jamie Moran, who has had a number of upmarket schemes to his credit in the capital. Recently completed on a site between two garages in the upmarket Palmerston neighbourhood, its svelte lines and bold design are reminiscent of the one-off architect designed contemporary trophy homes that became so popular in the latter years of the Celtic Tiger. The front door ‘key’ is actually a remote control, which opens the up-and-over garage designed for two cars (or one car and a guest-bedroom, should that layout be required instead). The big reveal comes with the fact that when you step in through the front door, the garden appears to be actually inside. “We came up with the idea of putting a garden at the centre of the project,” explains the architect Pierre Long, of Lawrence and Long Architects. “As a practice, we’re very interested in gardens and the relationships to buildings. It’s effectively a city site. Traditionally, you might have the garden at the front and at the back, where you’re looking at the garden and it’s part of the house.” O House wraps itself around that perfectly circular courtyard that sits at its heart, an inward-looking design turning its back on the street, revealing its secrets only to those who pass through the discreetly industrial facade of Corten steel, sandblasted concrete and Danish handmade brick. “The facade is a bit like a curtain,” Long says. “You pull it back, and you’re into this special environment.” The brick facade itself, however, is worth a closer look. Long describes the technique: “That’s a long brick, and it’s been cut, so that you get that angled facade, just to give it a little bit of detail. It’s almost like a weave, but it’s just stepped like that, just to give us a little bit of texture and light and shade.” The side of the house has also been ‘facaded’ with the same brick, albeit the flat version this time. Once inside, the house reveals its complexity. The form rises from the street down towards the west, dipping and expanding as you move through the spaces. “The garden in the middle of the plan, tracks the sunlight all day long and every room gets natural light,” Long says. “When you come in from the street, you’re into the tallest part of the building, which is a double height volume. You see the structure of the roof above. The building has the luxury of space at over 3,350 sq ft, but in terms of height, it is quite luxurious too. The spaces in the hall are double height, almost triple height, actually, because the roof is rising there.” The bespoke curved staircase is the other thing that grabs your attention. “The stairs are important because they’re the first thing you see when you come into the hall,” Long notes. “It’s a very elegant staircase that is wholly supported from the top and the bottom and there’s no structure in between. So it’s just as light as possible, as fine as possible. When you come in, you see the stairs in this double height volume, and then you see the garden, the staircase almost looks like it is suspended there.” The structure is mostly timber, according to Long. At the centre is a ring of concrete and set into this are the timber beams that support the whole structure. “There’s no steel in the house,” Long says. “It’s all timber structure, timber roofs and beams. The bedrooms have these beams that you can see from within, and then the columns. It’s very sculptural.” The timber structure was prefabricated offsite for precision, as was the sandblasted concrete element on the first floor, which was cast as a single piece with no joints. As you move through the ground floor, the roof continues to expand and contract, creating varying ceiling heights that compress and release the space. “You come into the kitchen, which is tall, and then there’s the living room off that, which is a floor and a half as well,” Long says. “The timber is quite relaxing. It’s a natural material. I don’t know if it’s part of the circle, but there’s something very nice about a circle. It’s very peaceful. All of those things between the materials and the actual geometry of the building, it feels very pleasant and calming.” In the kitchen, there are luxury touches – a hidden pantry here, a discreet wine cooler there – “hidden from view so you can avoid temptation on one of those stressful Wednesday afternoons,” Moran says. The worktop is made from the same porcelain as the floor. The garden courtyard isn’t just a visual centrepiece – it’s a functional one. “You move around the garden,” Long says. “You enjoy the garden, but you don’t have to go outside. You walk right around the house, and you’re constantly walking around the garden.” The natural light it rings in is supplemented by strategic openings elsewhere. “All the daylight is either from the garden itself, and then there are some windows at high level,” Long explains. “There’s another courtyard at the first floor which faces east, and that gives light to some of the other bedrooms and bathrooms.” Accommodation includes a ground floor with open-air lobby, kitchen and breakfast area, large pantry and utility room, boot room, dining area, sunken living room, home office area, shower room and twin garage – almost 2,000 sq ft of living space on this level alone. Upstairs, a large veranda-style landing overlooks the courtyard and provides access to three ensuite double bedrooms, including a master bedroom with walk-in wardrobe, ensuite bathroom and a balcony. The second bedroom has two balconies, while the third bedroom also has a walk-in wardrobe. A laundry room completes the first floor. The layout can accommodate a fourth bedroom if required, and there is provision for a lift. The building process relied heavily on BIM (Building Information Modelling) technology in its design, according to Long. “You have 3D models, so everybody’s able to check everything beforehand,” Long says. “A lot of the contractors and subcontractors we’ve been working with now would all be using those packages. You’re sharing the one drawing. You can walk through it, you can see all the issues. It’s a bit like a puzzle. It avoids issues on site.” Palmerston Villas is a quiet cul-de-sac between Palmerston Park and Cowper Road, with Rathmines, Rathgar, Dartry and Ranelagh all within walking distance. O House’s central garden offers the possibility that you could be anywhere though, the only sound the birds and the gentle service sounds from Brookfield tennis club next door. Sherry FitzGerald seeks €3.25m
