Dublin - a city of individual houses - should have a roof-scape of terraces, apartments and viewing platforms. In this project, five contiguous protected structures are converted to new uses for Dublin Dental School and Hospital, combining conservation with strong modern intervention into the fabric. The houses - a piece of city, archaeology and typology combined - are upgraded, using voids and fireplaces for services, retaining doors and surfaces. The rooftop is transformed by the addition of zinc 'pods' containing a new library. Light-well 'stalks' are dropped through the fabric, forming niches and spaces around a corridor intervention linking the houses laterally.
The project takes on five contiguous Protected Structures in central Dublin and converts them as the offices, library and gallery of the Dublin Dental Hospital. A radical approach to re-imagining these buildings has been realised. These lower floors have been cracked open to allow for horizontal circulation, the voids pulling light down. A timber screen with modulated fins forms a c-shaped intervention on each floor to organise the rooms. These rooms are conserved in accordance with their found status: all older finishes retained and re-worked exposing historical layers of paint, brickwork and timber. The new structure relies solely on the existing party walls, modern standards of fire safety, insulation & accessibility have been achieved: the work is to conserve existing fabric and to sustainably add appropriate modern work to it, the architecture gains by the juxtaposition.
- Address: Lincoln Place, Dublin 2
- Client: The Board of the Dublin Dental Hospital
- GPS: 53.342994, -6.251492
- Civil & Structural Engineers: O'Connor Sutton Cronin
- M&E Engineers: Homan O'Brien & Associates
- Quantity Surveyors: Brendan Merry & Partners
- Fire Consultants: Michael Slattery & Associates
- Contractors: Michael McNamara & Co.
- Awards:
- 2019 RIAI Silver Medal for Conservation 2011-2013 - Highly Commended
- 2014 Wood Awards - Winner - Restoration/Conservation
- 2012 RIAI Awards - Best Health Project