Botanic Avenue

Botanic Road is situated in Glasnevin, north Dublin, and named for its proximity to the National Botanical Gardens. The houses along the avenue generally date from the late Victorian period, towards the end of the 19th century.

The site for this project is a mid-terrace house on the east side of the road. The original house had a typical plan arrangement for one of this type: Front and rear reception rooms to one side of the plan, and an entrance hallway and stairs on the other. Behind the latter a two-storey rear return (a narrower projection to the rear of the main volume of the house) provided a small kitchen at ground floor level and a bathroom at first floor level.

Our clients wished to provide a more spacious kitchen and dining space in connection with the garden, along with a ground floor WC and utility space.

An early decision in the design process was to retain the space to the side of the return, and extend this to form a long courtyard to the side of the new extension, which would then widen to the full width of the site. The courtyard allowed the rear reception room to retain access to natural light and ventilation, and also provided a access to south light and ventilation for the spaces in the next extension.

The new plan form is relatively simple, with the narrower part of the extension (partially within the footprint of the original return) accommodating a bathroom and utility alongside a hallway, and then a kitchen, separated by a peninsula counter from the wider space of the dining area. A door from the dining area to the courtyard opens a second, external circulation route from the rear reception room directly to the dining space via the courtyard. The external finishes are primarily glazed, with accoya-framed windows left in their natural colour.