Memories, preserved in Clinker Bricks
Memories, preserved in Clinker Bricksby Malena Derschatta | 29.04.2012
House I + II
Alice Casey from TAKA Architects has combined a Victorian terraced house with a new building and has re-interpreted the typical Dublin clinker brick façade.Generations united
Alice Casey, an architect working for TAKA Architects, has planned a house for her own family. Parents and sister including her family were looking for a new place to live, a place Alice Casey realized for them in the Dublin quarter of Donnybrook. Here, the architect combined old and new. She re-designed an already existing Victorian terraced house into a new home for her parents. In the garden, a new building based on the idea of the “mews house“ found its place for her sister’s family. The remaining garden space is used together. TAKA Architects have thus created the idea of House I + II in Dublin.
Two architectural Core Areas
It was an explicit wish of the principal to integrate memories and elements from the old home of the family into the new one, in order to maintain a consistency between the two touchstones of their lives. This way various memories and rituals of the family were integrated into the architecture of the houses.
The second focus of the design was the expressive and well thought-out façade design. The façade of the new house part is based on the traditional clinker brick work of its “older brother”, creating a visual connection between the buildings. The combination of bricks with wood is one of the elements the two houses have in common. Yet at the same time, the unconventional realization of the two façades emphasizes the difference between the generations.
Clinker Bricks, re-interpreted
The outside of the Victorian house of the parents is held in the traditional red clinker brick look. This the architect used as a basis for the façade of the new building. Since the two generations are not the same, their houses were not supposed to look the same either. The façade of the new building was realized based on the “mews house” as a classic clinker brick façade in two oppositional patterns. With the front of the house facing the street the clinker bricks protrude from the façade in a staggered manner. The resulting pattern reminds of a chess board and looks unusual. The side facing the garden, however, is designed like a network of clinker bricks, which is partly translucent. The openings in the façade also takes care of airing the rooms inside. The idea behind this: if you placde the two façades above each other, the result would be a closed clinker brick façade.
The Center has been found
Moving houses does not come easy to many people. Leaving your parents’ house makes it hard to let go of nice memories. This is why the daughter wanted to take a few of these memories into her new home. Her idea was to consider the stairs as an extra room inside the house, just the way it used to be in her old home. The architect has realized this wish by designing extra wide wooden stairs, providing space for resting or decoration by connecting steps. The kitchen of the back house was designed as a social place for encounter, based on the wishes of the inhabitants. The cooker has been positioned in the middle of the living space and marks one of two centers.
The second center is the open fireplace, located at the heart of the house, going through all floors. The central place of the two fireplaces fulfilled the wish of the inhabitants: Light and warmth being the heart of a home.
Beloved Rituals
To the parents, memories of their old home were mainly tied to social, communicative rituals. They were afraid family dinner on Sundays would not be possible in their new, smaller house. These concerns should now be a thing from the past thanks to the unusual table, which has been integrated in the first floor. It is made of massive stone, cannot be moved and has thus almost the character of an altar.
An open fireplace was also realized inside the parents’ building. For the interior, Alice Casey chose clinker bricks, typical for Dublin’s façades. Painted clinker bricks were integrated into the wall as a decoration and are a well-made contrast to the rough surface of the red bricks.
For her innovative deployment of clinker bricks, the TAKA architect received the “International Brick Award“.
Project details
Architect:
TAKA Architects, Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Status:
Completion 2009
Comments
nice
love the beauty in the simplicity
It's interesting how the architect managed to include memories and elements from the old house of the family into the new one, all put together in this unique design. People know that home contractors are the best choice when it comes to renovating their homes, they know how to make a new house feel like home.
This house has a great architecture! The combination between old and new looks fabulous and it gives and elegant look to the house. If you want to renovate an old house and to change its architecture and interior design than you should definitely hire a professional team in order to take care of this project. Moreover you should also hire a team from http://actionairplumbing.com/ in order to check the plumbing system.
The combination between old and new is amazing and it gives an elegant look to the interior design of this house. When having such a house, the owner should think in buying one of those nice flags from The Flag Company and putting it at the front door as it will look great.
Blending two entirely different elements or style is always a difficult task, but she has done this in a commendable manner. Often big old houses come with big garden area which often contains ponds. If there is a pond then you have to take special care to keep it clean, you should hire aquatic weed control companies for this purpose.
She has made a good use of the bricks in this house, the building looks absolutely mesmerizing. The blend of old and new elements has lend this building an unique look. However, now she should concentrate on making the garden area better and for this they should hire a good landscaping company like Monarch Landscapes, which could be found online at http://www.monarchlandscapes.com/.
She has created a beautiful house where the old and the modern features have blended perfectly. However, if you have bought an old house then you can add modern features in it too by renovating it, but do not forget to change the old key, to get new keys you should contact http://broadwaylockandkey.com/.
The way she has combined old and new elements is really commendable and both the elements have blended effortlessly. However, even if you live in an old house you can still make it better by painting it with vibrant colors and not just that but you can also make it interesting with custom wall decals which you can find at http://www.wallsofthewild.com/All-Stickers-s/1833.htm.
This woman is incredibly talented and here she has blended the old and new elements in this building project in a flawless manner. One can find the old charm here while enjoying the modern facilities. However, if you have plans to renovate an old house, you should first change the old roof by hiring a good roofing company. If you want to use the building for commercial needs then you should contact http://palmerwest.net.
It's a really beautiful house after all that work and meaning put into it. We don't get houses with that much thought put into it in Chalong here. Most of the houses for sale and property for sale here are pretty much targeted at the tourists who are looking for a villa holiday. It would be lovely if each piece of land held a home that had this much of a back story to it though!