Floating Plane Hidden Garden

This Victorian house was carefully integrated with new living spaces to capture the best of its corner site.

A new singular roof plane floats over part of the rear of the site to create a sunken garden room enclosing a calm courtyard, proportioned on a golden section ratio. A rooflight over steps to the new room - similarly proportioned - generates a diagonal conversation between open and closed spaces. Dissolving boundaries between inside and outside, living rooms are integrated with garden spaces by creating an undulating ground plane under a floating roof. This reinforces the idea of the traditional Dublin type - the single storey villa with its ingenious split section.

By sinking the garden room and terrace below the hidden courtyard - between old and new - then stepping the garden to its original level, volume and spaciousness as well as privacy and intimacy are created.