This project, by David Leech Architects, is a contemporary translation of the ordinary suburban house on the edge of Dublin city.

In their spirit the house is built economically using everyday materials and techniques easily sourced and knowledgeable for a local builder and tradesmen.

According to the authors, these materials and techniques are amplified and exaggerated to become something at once ambiguous but familiar.

A cross-shaped core divides the ground floor into 4 public rooms: a hall/library, kitchen, dining and living room.

A curtain of timber and glass folding doors allows to wrap the exterior of the house for direct connection and access to the garden.

These rooms are located according to proportion and orientation and step in section to accommodate ceiling heights of varying dimension and intimacy.

The core contains the service and plumbed elements. A continuous loop of circulation is along the perimeter.

The first floor is laid out with three bedrooms and a bathroom off a small central landing. From the landing space, paneled doors open into generously proportioned bedrooms side lit from large windows sitting on the skirting of the opposing walls.

Externally, the house is treated in a manner similar but exaggerated to the immediate terrace housing.The architects believe that the house demonstrates that a rich architecture does not necessarily mean an expensive architecture.

The masonry walls are finished in a pigmented off-white cementitious render, deeply roughcast on the garden side and hand troweled smooth on the laneway elevation and public faces.