Irish Architecture Foundation

The Irish Architecture Foundation now occupy No.15 Bachelors Walk which has been radically re-worked to bring a seriously dilapidated Georgian building back to use. The transformation has reinvigorated the quays and includes a full restoration of the façade and the building fabric, coupled with a carefully calibrated intervention to provide a small cinema / public space that can be viewed from the pavement.

This theatre/forum space is formed in a plywood box lodged between ground floor and basement – maximizing on the basement space that was not previously utilised. The forum box is open to all; videos, film and live performance can be projected against the rere wall, visible across the Liffey to the city behind the original shopfront. Above the forum is another forum – a south facing room that addresses the river, restored to original proportions and containing a panel of timber form the original house. This room was conceived as a place for discussion in Dublin.

The rere of the old house is built up with a periscope of new rooms overlooking the river. A new concrete stairwell abuts existing fabric creating a ‘found’ space of exposed finishes: brickwork, steel and cast stair nosings bringing new and old together with an edgy materiality.