As part of the Dublin Open House event in October, I took a look around FKL Architects‘ ‘A-Rated House’ in Rathmines, Dublin – a concrete built 2-storey home, designed to respond the physical and planning restrictions of a small North-facing mews plot in the South Dublin inner city suburbs.
The 3-bed house was designed for Michelle Fagan and Gary Lysaght, both partners at FKL Architects, and their family, and besides setting a new aesthetic brief for environmentally responsible design, it also offers some interesting spatial ideas to meet the challenges of modern family living.
5 Ideas to take from FKL’s A-Rated House (after pics)
Front View from Laneway
Entry and Stair
View from kitchen toward garden
Double-height 'Slot' thru House
Stair & Rooflights
Upstairs Living Room
Balustrade around double-height 'Slot'
View from Living Room toward Landing 'Bridge'
Master Bedroom
Rooflight in Bathroom
Rear View from Garden
5 Ideas to take from FKL’s A-Rated House:
Green Credentials:
Eco- friendly concrete, external insulation, a green living roof to replace the building footprint, solar panels, heat recovery, vegetable plot and a lively suburban location, eliminating the need for a car as fundamental ingredient in daily life – all go to show creating a beautiful, modern home doesn’t have to mean sacrificing environmental credibility.
It’s Not White:
For anyone who’s ever tried to co-exist in a minimal white interior with grubby-pawed toddlers or to impress aesthetic appreciation upon crayon-toting kids, the passing of this particular trend must surely meet with a chorus of Hallelujiahs! The A-Rated House’s concrete interior creates a neutral background that’s easy on the eye, with timber cabinets and wall panels providing an added visual warmth.
Upstairs, Downstairs
The most interesting idea at work in the A-Rated House is the central double-height slot that divides the building in two – bridged only where the stair lands at first floor level – creating a visual and spatial link between upstairs and downstairs. Wherever you are in the house, you are aware of this relationship to everything else – a truly open plan type of living. The advantage is that everything in the house feels connected – the disadvantage could be a lack of privacy.
Light Matters
One of the biggest challenges of building in this location is the orientation – the house faces South onto a narrow laneway, with the living rooms and garden facing North. Light from the front of the house, and from strategically placed rooflights, travels down through the central double-height space bringing sunlight into the rear of the house – the family can enjoy the tracking of the sun’s path through the course of the day across this space. Dividing the living space between ground and first floor levels also maximises natural light and views at the upper level.
Flexible Space
At the rear of the house at ground floor level, addressing the garden and only partially open to the kitchen dining space, is a family living room or snug. This space has a doorway linking it to a discrete ‘service’ corridor giving access to a Utility and storage area, the integral garage and also downstairs WC / Shower room. The snug can therefore double as guest accommodation complete with en-suite bathroom, when required.
Final Thoughts
My only concern about the open plan nature of the house would be a lack of privacy that could become an issue as the family grows older. When puberty and the woe-ridden adolescent years hit, a place of retreat becomes essential to the sanity of teenagers and parents alike.
The saving grace here comes in the unlikely form of the City Fathers and their insistence that off-street parking be provided as an integral part of the design, despite the owners not owning or wishing to own a car! The ‘garage’ (although this seems too mean a word for the clean, bright space created for this purpose), already separated from the main body of the house by the service zone, provides the possibility of sanctuary – the final component to make this a truly sustainable and flexible home.
If you found this article of interest, you may also like:
Dublin Open House: House 1 | House 2 by TAKA Architects (and 5 Ideas to Steal…)
The Hidden Potential in your Home
It’s Not About Looks – Good Design Works
Do you have any any pet peeves about housing or home design? Please leave a comment with your thoughts on this subject or any other home improvement or design issues you’d like to see featured.
Your home... with living:room 
A very interesting design although I would agree with you Angela regarding the open plan issue for a growing family. I’m not sure that I could live with that much concrete personally but it is far more practical than white surfaces!
Thanks for the comment, Paula, and a Happy New Year! It’s an interesting point you make and, I must confess, I had my reservations about a concrete interior before I actually visited the house. We tend to associate concrete with utilitiarian or industrial structures – car parks and the like, so it doesn’t necessarily match our expectations of what a home should be.
I wondered if the use of concrete would make the house feel dark or cold and I’m happy to say it didn’t, on either count. The clever central ‘slot’ brings both natural light and sunlight into the house whilst the insulation on the exterior means the main structure of the house is essentially ‘warm’. The colour of the concrete itself is also important – aggregates used in the mix can be almost any colour these days and opting for warmer tones will create a visually pleasant interior.
It will probably take a while for us to embrace concrete as an aesthetic choice in our homes but it’s certainly becoming more popular in domestic architecture and there are fantastic examples of its use worldwide, particularly in Japan – if you’re interested, I’d recommend taking a look at the work of Tadao Ando or Riken Yamamoto.
You’ve really hepled me understand the issues. Thanks.