Architects Eva Byrne and Gerard Carty have created a bright and dynamic family home on a tight north-facing plot in Dublin.
by Emma Cullinan, Select Furniture & Interiors of Ireland, Spring 2005
Photographs by Philip Lauterbach
Squashing two houses onto a 10.8 metres wide, north-facing site would seem an unpromising prospect but architects Eva Byrne and Gerard Carty, and a couple of friends, have created two adjacent Dublin homes that are full of light and space. Amazingly, it turns out that Eva and Gerard, and their two children, spend most of their time in the north-facing kitchen/dining area on the ground floor. But that’s because it’s been designed to work well. The house steps up as it rises, with outdoor spaces extending beyond the ground floor at each end of the building, and the ground floor, likewise, extends beyond the upper floor, on both sides.
“It has been interesting, on an architectural level, to realise a couple of things about a north-facing site”, says Eva. “One thing is that the yellow brick on the Victorian buildings opposite relects sunlight into this house. Also, in the summer, nearly all of the north-facing garden gets sun because the first floor is pulled back. The high point of the house determines where the sun comes in so it made me realsie that if you add a one-storey extension to the north side of a house you’re not really going to reduce the amount of sun.”
The way the house steps back also ensures a generous amount of outdoor space and, with the three/four bedrooms on the upper floor kept fairly small, the living area has been maximised. The house has also been made flexible through an opening plywood wall in a front room on the first floor, which has, in its time, been a playroom, office and guest bedroom. The wall closes to enclose the room, or opens to link the room to the upstairs landing and stairwell.
Downstairs, a three section, rolling plywood wall separates the central dining/office area from the kitchen next door. In winter, this means that the kitchen/play area, with its open fireplace, can become a cosy enclosed space. When friends come to dinner, the screen can be patly shut to hide kids’ clutter while keeping the cook in contact with diners.
Evidence of happy dinner parties is manifest in the new pieces of paper stuck to the light shade, which Eva and Gerard bought in kitchenhaus, when they were buying their Bulthaup kitchen. The light comes with inscribed pieces of paper hung onto clips, but spare paper is provided to do your own artwork on. A piece of paper smudged with lipstick shows how some guests became intimate with the lighting one evening.
The furniture has been carefully chosen. “We’ve been through our deckchair and mattress-on-the-floor stage,” says Eva. Much of the furniture was built in: including the office shelves, plywood cupboards and the shelving in the Cloakroom just inside the front door.
The two sleek and strong iroko dining table were designed and made by Chris Boyle, and can be put together to create a much longer table. The large sofa has been with the couple for years, and now has new loose covers on it. The two leather armchairs, which are an ode to Le Corbusier’s famous chairs, were from Habitat (now out of stock), as were all of the rugs in the house. Eva loves the way her Bulthaup kitchen is robust with smooth running drawers. She even derives joy from the brilliant way the chopping system has been designed, involving, for starters, a chopping board that slots over the sink and a special container that catches all the bits. Light was very important to Eva and Gerard, who is associate director of Grafton Architects, and the house reflects this beautifully The interior features were chosen for their light-reflecting quality: the terrazzo floor, the plywood surfaces, and white walls. The inventive glazing also provides the most wonderful light effects that change throughout the day. Slit windows at each end of the ground floor capture different views – the sky and trees – from the huge iroko framed sliding walls below them. Above the stairs the roof alternates between concrete beams and strips of glass, creating a slatted structure that throws light patterns onto the walls and the floor below.
Her years of working as an architect, and the joy she experienced in creating a space that specifically suited her needs, has led Eva to set up service in which she she visits people’s homes and helps them to maximise their own spaces. She can either assess a whole house or a specific area, such as a dark kitchen or a bathroom. “Because of my professional training and my experience in work and of creating a home for myself, I have the ability to walk into a space and assess how its potential can be maximised,” says Eva. Following a 2-hour consultation (which costs €250) she will come up with various solutions on how to improve a space. For those on a low budget, this can involve moving furniture around, choosing certain paints and finishes and improving storage, while those on a higher budget might be encouraged to put in rooflights, knock down walls or build an extension. Although Eva won’t be involved in later stages of a project she can recommend architects, builders, electricians, plumbers and so on.
“Houses are my passion and I relish the opportunity to share my skills” says Eva, whose love of living spaces shows in the success of her own home. “It’s the first time we’ve designed a house and then lived in it. It’s been a pleasure to be both architect and client,” says Eva who praises her competent and innovative builder, Jens Keuchenmeister of Meisterwerk. “Nothing compares to building your own house – it’s amazing. It’s the nearest thing to having a baby. It is just phenomenal to stand here and say “we did this, the way we wanted. It’s a house that suits our needs.”
