Dublin 2/€1.35m: It's all about glass in a dramatic light-filled Victorian era house with an ultra-modern extension. Emma Cullinan reports
An award-winning architect-designed house at 38 Adelaide Road, Dublin 2, has become a bit of a local landmark, with its glass rear overlooking the Grand Canal.
Yet the three-bedroom house, which will be auctioned by Sherry Fitzgerald on October 27th with a guide of €1.35 million, wasn't originally intended to have such a substantial refurbishment.
When the owners bought this end-of-terrace house in March 2002, they originally thought that they would give this Victorian building a lick of paint and add those instant updaters: a smart kitchen and bathroom. But, as they spent more and more time in the house, they decided to make more substantial changes.
An extension added to their previous home had been a success and its contemporary nature encouraged the couple to opt for a modern look here.
They enlisted architect Robin Mandal, who created a flowing home with double-height spaces stepping into each other: from ground floor to first-floor living/kitchen area, and again from here into the gallery office which looks down over the lot, and out to the south-facing garden, across the canal to the Dublin streetscape beyond.
Period details were kept at the front of the house, including the front door and an original sash window. "The house had little of merit internally, so we had a relatively free hand in terms of altering its layout and adding to it," says Mandal.
The front and side walls were retained while the back of the house came off. The bathroom - with a large mirror and window to give it a spacey feel - and bedroom are tucked into the existing part of the house, on the ground floor. This contrasts with the rest of the house: from the tiled ground floor living area you can see up into the first floor and office gallery.
While some may worry about such vast expanses of glass, it really does afford a fantastic view and feeling of openness.
The owners say that privacy hasn't been a problem and they often receive friendly waves from more chipper commuters stuck in morning traffic jams crawling along the road at the rear of the house.
The glass is designed to unite the house vertically and horizontally, both outside and in, says the architect.
Other more nest-like rooms include an ash-lined ground-floor space that juts into the garden from a corner of the house.
This can be screened off by sliding doors and works as a livingroom and guest bedroom. Another bedroom and shower room sit off the stainless steel walkway beside the first floor living/diningroom/SieMatic kitchen.
The high-level walkway skirting the ground floor living space is picked up in the metal stairs leading up to the office/reading area which, like all the house, is wired for sound and computers.
Storage has been well thought out, with plenty of shelves up here, made by Rui Ferreira, as were the units in the walk-in wardrobe beside the main bedroom. There's also a utility room at the end of the entrance hall.
Underfloor heating adds to the pared look of this house, which has cleverly married traditional and contemporary structures.
