High-tech in Blackrock for €1.15m

If ever a James Bond villain was to choose a Dublin residence it might be No 8 Temple Crescent, a high-tech house where they could hide in plain sight on a small country-style lane at the junction of Temple and Monkstown roads.

Built in 2010, and laid out over six flights of stairs, this is a lair for mobile modernists.The house next door, No 6 Temple Crescent, a fairly standard four bedroom detached property of 148sq m, sold in March through agents SherryFitzGerald for €865,000, according to the Property Price Register.

No 8 resembled No 6 until its owners, a pair of serial renovators – a builder and a decorator – took it on. On a similar sized plot of land to No 6 they built a pair of semi-detached houses, finishing the one they sold for €950,000 in 2010 to the spec of the buyers – they had been looking at another refurbished property the pair had been selling.

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Their extreme make-over involved digging down an entire floor to make use of every single cm. The pair also added extra soundproofing between the concrete structures so the house feels solid as well as silent.

The front door opens into a crema marfil-tiled hall with a large guest toilet, a living room and a large wet room that the builder, a kite surfer, uses to wash his board.

But it isn’t until you step down a level that the entire house really reveals itself. From the open-plan kitchen a wall of glass telescopes back to open the room up to the landscaped garden.

From the sunken granite terrace it’s apparent how far they dug down to cleave out this space. The units are simple sage green melamine, with some concealed into a wall behind which is a large utility where laundry chutes from each floor combine.

Behind this is what the agent is calling a carpeted storage space that teens will want to commandeer as a media room.

The garden, which has been lushly planted with specimen shrubs and trees, is wired for outdoor speakers and there is a gas outlet for a barbecue.

One floor up is the lounge, another large room with a dramatic double height ceiling and a gas-feature fire.

Plans to build a glass balustraded terrace outside were denied by planners five years ago but they could be revisited and the original doors are there should the next owner succeed. It is a dream worth pursuing as the views take in Dublin Bay from this level.

There are two double bedrooms and a roomy wetroom on the next floor.

A sliding door screens off the master suite which includes a bathroom, one level up, that exhibitionists will love. It doesn't have a window but is lit naturally by an internal glass panel above the sitting room.

At the top of the house is the master bedroom. From this crow’s nest when standing there is a cracking view across Dublin’s seascape .

The property is asking €1.15million through agents Hunters and has off-street parking for several cars.