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From The Sunday Times

October 26, 2003

Light fantastic

Award-winning architect Tom de Paor is designing small but perfectly formed new town houses for central Dublin, writes David Clerkin

You may not have liked his pavilion made from peat briquettes, or you may have loved motoring past his work on the A13 en route to Barking, east London, but those looking for a Dublin city-centre home that stands out from the crowd can look forward to new designs from Tom de Paor, the rising star of Irish architecture.

De Paor has been described as a wunderkind, but prefers to share the praise with his contemporaries. “There’s an incredibly talented generation of architects coming on stream out there. I don’t think of myself as the wunderkind among them,” he says.

The 35-year-old Dublin-based architect, who won the Corus Building Design young architect of the year award in Britain earlier this year and has attracted much comment and occasional criticism, has turned his attention to new adventures in city living.

His designs have been used for proposed town houses at Blessington Court in Dublin, which is currently on the market from Jackson-Stops, as well as a similar scheme involving two houses on John Dillon Street in the Liberties.

The Blessington Street site is a few minutes’ walk from O’Connell Street and the properties have a price tag of €400,000.

The site was once the home of a plate-metal workshop and comes with full planning permission for three town houses of approximately 735 sq ft each. Each house will be three storeys high and will contain two bedrooms, a living room and a lounge/dining area.

De Paor was careful to optimise the use of the limited space available. “Although modestly sized, there’s a variety of different spatial conditions in each house and we made sure to use the full width available to us between each parting wall,” he says.

The design was kept relatively simple, which has the added benefit of making construction easier on a small site.

De Paor prefers his designs to allow for living spaces on the upper levels of properties, with bedrooms occupying the lower levels wherever possible. “In terms of access to air and light, it’s always better to live in the parts of a house where they’re maximised,” he says.

He suggests that it is a waste to spend so much time in the parts of a house that get the least light, as is often the case in more traditional designs. One of the bedrooms will have a top-lit terrace, while the kitchen/dining area will have a terrace at roof level.

There were also considerable challenges in coming up with a design that preserves the privacy of residents in dwellings that are squeezed close together.

De Paor says the facade was designed to control views into each house from adjoining properties. Each house will have a private gated courtyard that allows light into the entrance without giving nearby properties an unrestricted view.

De Paor says his motivation is to offer contemporary spaces for those who want to live close to the city centre. The design at Blessington Court is aimed at younger people, particularly those buying in the city centre for the first time.

Meanwhile, construction on de Paor’s two town houses on John Dillon Street will be completed within the next few weeks. Both of these houses are a roomy 1,000 sq ft and have two double bedrooms and a living room. The beds are built into the structure of the properties, a feature which, according to de Paor, means that the occupiers will need to take less furniture in with them.

As the houses are close to the church of St Nicholas of Myra, a listed building, greater sensitivity was required in designing the homes and minimising adverse impact on their surroundings.

“They’re on the scale of a traditional two-up two-down, but have a more contemporary feel inside,” says de Paor. The interiors include exposed concrete walls, marble floors and timber decks. The modern feel is augmented by the inclusion of spa baths.

In keeping with de Paor’s design preferences, the living quarters are upstairs and bedrooms downstairs. The architect says the choice of materials used in the houses are of higher quality than those proposed for the Blessington Court town houses. “Both of the designs share an attitude about them, but John Dillon Street is more ambitious and aims to be more luxurious,” he says.

City-centre buyers who are unimpressed with the repetitive nature of recent large-scale apartment developments will welcome de Paor’s new ideas, although his unique tastes will not necessarily appeal to all. His designs attempt to cushion the blow felt by city dwellers, who often lose out on the size of their homes in return for the convenience of their location.

De Paor finds himself spending an increasing amount of his time on designing residences, which he says he always finds very interesting, although his work for Dublin city council on the first phase of a new pumping station on Vernon Avenue in Clontarf is nearing completion.

He cites a number of residential projects in Dublin, Cork and Donegal — including housing projects for people with special needs — that are keeping him busy, and admits a preference for tackling new projects rather than making alterations to existing buildings.

Those who share de Paor’s desire for adventurous design will be keeping a close eye on his work.

The site at 2/3 Blessington Court, Dublin 7, is on sale through Jackson-Stops, 01 633 3777, www.jacksonstops.ie