The design of our homes and buildings has a huge impact on our quality of life, our physical and mental health - we spend around 90% of our lives indoors in the western world. We are passionate about making sustainable, comfortable, healthy and beautiful places to live and work.

our projects

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.

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.

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

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

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.

kilcock

This modest rural bungalow was completely transformed by adding a new open plan extension, comprising kitchen, dining and living areas, in a single, light filled space. The extension was designed to maximise sunlight throughout the day and views out to the surrounding landscape. The rest of the house was upgraded with new windows, external insulation and render, which updated the external appearance and made the home warm, comfortable and very energy efficient.

Rural bungalow extension and refurbishment

Spacious corner extension for a growing family

The owners of this 1970's house needed more space for their young family and to make their house warmer and more comfortable. The design solution was to demolish the existing garage at the side of the house and replace it with a new single storey extension, housing a large kitchen/ dining space, utility room and storage areas. The extension creates a "book-end" at the end of the row of houses, and was designed so that an extension at first floor level can be added in the future when required. The new kitchen is flooded with light from a large rooflight above and has views out through the large patio doors to the south west facing garden. A folding partition and sliding glazed internal doors allow lots of flexibility in the way the spaces are used and experienced at ground floor. 
The project also included an overall upgrade to the energy performance of the house. This work was split into phases - some of the upgrade works were carried out while the extension was being built, and some are still to follow in the future, when funds allow.

temple rd

Meditative garden in the grounds of a Protected Structure, comprising bound gravel paving, timber trellis screens, raised planting area, corten steel edging and exposed concrete.

Meditative Garden Design

portobello 2

A spacious, open, light filled kitchen/ dining/ family room extension was added onto the rear of a redbrick terraced house. The extension extends across the full width of the site, creating an internal courtyard and allowing light and views to connect the period rooms at the front through to the patio at the rear. Timber frame construction was used to minimise disruption to the historic structure.

Redbrick home extension with courtyard

donnybrook

Refurbishment and conservation works to the exterior facade, roof and surroundings of a handsome Victorian redbrick house in Dublin 4.

Historic Victorian redbrick house refurbishment

Walled garden holiday homes

New development of contemporary holiday houses, built within an existing orchard and walled garden of an historic country estate. Natural untreated timber, stonework and slate were used to harmonise with the existing historic outbuildings and structures.

As part of the overall Masterplan for the development of Farnham Estate in Co. Cavan, a number of pockets were identified from within the 1300 acre Estate where housing could be developed in a sensitive manner with minimal impact to the historic landscape and also integrate with elements of the hotel, spa and golf course which were being developed on the Estate. The housing was split into three phases; the Walled Garden, the Orchard, and the Golf Course houses.

The Walled Garden houses, built within the boundaries of the Estate’s original walled garden, took their inspiration from the character of the adjacent existing stableyards and outhouses; the houses were arranged in linear blocks around a central, hard landscaped courtyard space, and were designed to look inward to this space.

The Orchard houses were set amongst the established orchard landscape. Their external appearance reflects the simple character and form of the vernacular farm buildings. Behind these solid exteriors their L-shaped plans wrap around and enclose courtyard gardens and the houses focus inwards towards these.

Natural stone, render, untreated cedar boarding and slate are used to link these contemporary buildings into their rural context.

This project was designed by Peter Nickels whilst Associate Director at Gilroy McMahon Architects.

Kensington Road

Complete refurbishment of a 1920s semi-detached house which was in poor condition. A part two storey and part single storey extension was wrapped around the back and side of the original house, increasing the floor area of the house by an additional 50%. The extension was carefully designed so as to maintain lots of natural light in the existing house and minimise the visual bulk of the extension when seen from the road. The design is courteous to its established, leafy, residential surroundings, and uses a simple palette of materials – white painted render, striking red brick and natural slate. The fabric of the original house – walls, roof, floors and windows - was fully upgraded to exceed the energy performance and air tightness standards required by the Building Regulations.

Carefully designed extension creates additional 50% floor area

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