Room to grow in architect's home

Top of the wish-list of most architects is to build their own home from scratch and Paul Joyce achieved his ambition when he bought a wonderful site in Dartry in Dublin 6 just 13 years ago.

Not only is the very large and tree-surrounded site particularly attractive, its location is excellent: it is on Richmond Avenue South, a winding secluded road that is mostly bordered on one side by Alexandra College, which links Palmerston Park with Milltown Road.

His striking three-bedroom house, Les Buissonets, is now for auction on October 6th through O'Reilly's, which is guiding £575,000. Richmond Road South is not a typical Dartry road. While other roads in the area are mostly lined with fine period houses, this one features several highly individual-looking architect-designed houses built in the past 20 years, all on their own grounds.

The one now for sale is set behind tall wooden gates and is exceptionally private. It has a particularly large garden and the architect suggests that not only is there the potential, given planning permission, to greatly enlarge the house but also to carve another house site out of the grounds.

The striking house that Paul Joyce designed for himself and his family is all redbrick, glass and teak wood.

The back wall is made up of windows punctuated by three sets of double doors, each of which leads into a different room. The far ones open into the kitchen, the middle ones into the formal dining area and the third ones into the livingroom, which has a double height ceiling. All three rooms also connect along this glass corridor, so it is possible to get from one to the other without going through the more traditional hallway. Also at this level is a large utility room.

Upstairs there are three modest-sized double bedrooms as well as a walk-in hot-press and a fully-tiled family bathroom. Unusually, one of the bedrooms features an internal balcony overlooking the livingroom.

Inside the house, the bare red brick has been left exposed in almost every room and the internal doors are dark teak as are the window frames. The floors are made of quarry tiles or varnished wood. Apart from the obvious development potential that this house's site offers, new owners will almost certainly want to do some work updating its interiors. The current owners took their fitted kitchen with them when they moved, so a new one will have to be installed.

This house is so different that it featured before on these property pages when Paul and his young family were interviewed about building their own home. While looking at past prices is always depressing in this market, in this case, it is even more so: the couple bought the site for £30,000. Houses on this road come up very rarely, and large private sites in Dublin 6 almost never, so interest on auction day is bound to be strong.