Four architects got together to develop a mews site in Rathmines. The result is a house for each couple, and one that's for sale. Emma Cullinan reports

A terrace of three newly-built houses off Church Avenue in Rathmines has provided homes for the two architect couples who built them, and a third house that is now on the market.

The three-storey, four-bedroom house at 7 Church Lane, off Church Avenue in Rathmines, comes with the high spec and design input that the architects - Nicki Cloonan, Brian O'Donnell, Barry Kelly and Orla Hegarty - put into their own two neighbouring properties.

Sherry FitzGerald will auction the end-ofterrace house on April 6th and the advised minimum value (AMV) is €2 million. Since it's a new build, the buyer will pay reduced stamp duty (about €45,000 instead of the €180,000 based on the €2 million AMV).

O'Donnell, who runs Coda Architects with his wife Nicki Cloonan, specialises in high-end homes and conservation. "So we admire period houses yet don't feel that we have to imitate an old style and create a pastiche but do use the same feeling of space."

Hence the high ceilings and tall doorways that open up this already sizeable structure that measures 230sq m (2,560sq ft). The stairs run up the centre of the building - and are lit from a skylight - while the living spaces that actually require natural light are placed on the edges of the house, to the front and rear.

From the entrance, you can see straight through to the long livingroom/kitchen ahead. Before reaching this you pass a sittingroom with an open fireplace, and a guest bathroom with a Jura limestone floor and sleek bathware. The open-plan oak-floored kitchen/livingroom has a custom-made Italian kitchen to one end, with granite worktop and pale khaki doors. More than 10 metres away, the other end of the room interfaces with the garden through vast glazed doors that fold back to unite the interior and exterior.

On the first floor a cosy room with fireplace opens onto a terrace floored in timber and a strip of sandblasted glass that lets light through to the dining table below.

A small office off this is wired for CAT5 as is every room in the house. This home is steeped in new technology.

Two first-floor bedrooms are divided by a solid wall halfway along, and a sliding wall the rest of the way that can be opened to create a large play area. On the floor above, a rear bedroom has one wall papered in large blue flowers which shows how wallpaper can work successfully and also indicates that this house promotes comfortable living. Says O'Donnell: "We wanted to show that not all highbrow architecture has to be without comforts. This is not like those stark, white box houses that rule your life and make people feel uncomfortable." This room has an en suite as does the main bedroom to the front. In this case the bathroom feels spa-like with its large, rectangular walk-in shower on one level with stairs rising to a large hydrotherapy bath. Above this is a roof light. There will be artworks for sale on the walls during viewings.