peter nickels architects

1970s house transformed into a Passive House

An existing two storey 1970's house with a flat roof was completely transformed by the addition of an additional storey on top to create a 275 sq.m (2,950 sq.ft), five bedroom family home. The whole house was refurbished to EnerPHit standard (the Passive House Institute standard for existing buildings), which is the highest standard of energy efficient construction. The shape of the roof creates a flat roof along the ridge, facing south, to ensure maximum efficiency of the roof mounted solar photovoltaic panels. 
The project was awarded the RIAI Architecture Award for Sustainability in 2022 and the NetZero Ireland Construction Award for Retrofit 2022.

Contemporary glazed extension connects historic house to garden

This large Victorian house had poor connections between the interior spaces and the south facing garden. The design solution was to create a contemporary glazed extension with an oversailing roof, creating an inside/ outside room which feels like it is part of the garden and a covered external canopy. A modern, urban garden was also created as part of the project.

portobello

A period redbrick terraced house was refurbished and re-configured so that it opened out to the rear garden. Although the floor area of the new kitchen extension was only small, the full height glazed screen walls open up so that the interior and the garden flow seamlessly together and give the appearance of a much larger space.

Victorian terraced house opened out into the garden

Castleknock

In this project, poorly planned and built 1980s extensions were demolished and replaced with new extensions to create a spacious and luxurious 295 sq.m (3,100 sq.ft) family home.
The original stepped floor levels were eliminated so that the whole ground floor flows together seamlessly, from the large open plan kitchen dining room to the extensive rear paved patio area. The kitchen is at the hub of the house, and is flooded with light from a huge rooflight above. The fabric of the existing building was upgraded throughout, together with new windows, airtightness measures, a whole house ventilation system and air to water heat pump.

Contemporary, spacious, light-filled family home

Farnham Estate Hotel

Farnham Estate, Co. Cavan, comprises over 1,300 acres of historic woodlands with Farnham House, dating from 1802, and it's surrounding designed landscape, at the heart. The client’s brief was to transform it into a luxury resort hotel, including the restoration of Farnham House to create public reception rooms and guest suites; 150 new bedrooms; a destination wellness spa; and a state of the art conference centre facility.

The principal design challenge was the insertion of large new building elements into the context of the Protected Structure, its outbuildings and the historic landscape, without detracting from the inherent character of the setting and the overall demesne. This was achieved by breaking down the building into smaller constituent elements which were arranged sensitively around the site, and juxtaposed with the historic building fabric and the established landscape features in order to minimise the impact of the new building and set up dynamic relationships between new and old.

The interior fitting out, inspired by the buildings’ arcadian setting, achieves a sumptuous blend of modernity and tradition, with use of daylighting and framed views linking the interior inextricably with the surrounding landscape.

The project was designed by Peter Nickels whilst Associate Director at Gilroy McMahon Architects and was awarded Best Commercial Building of the Year by the Local Authority Management Association.

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Dublin based, award-winning, Passive House architects

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