Dublin architects [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] have completed a residence called A House in Dublin, Ireland.

The building comprises two stacked, diagonally-staggered, concrete volumes.

“The house is an exploration of diagonal space within an orthogonal
form and the possibilities of integrating environmental concerns at a
fundamental level,” says Diarmaid Brophy of FLK.

“A concrete tube provides the structural and spatial organisation
and encloses the public areas of the house,” Brophy continues. “Divided
by joinery elements, the tube of space is twisted between ground and
first floor to allow a relationship to the garden and daylight from
above.”

Interior surfaces are made of sandblasted concrete and timber.

Photographs by Verena Hilgenfeld.

Here’s some more information from FLK:
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A-house
This house, a home for a family of five is an exploration of the
possibilities of integrating environmental concerns at a fundamental
level within a contemporary idiom.

The site was chosen for its proximity to schools, local shops,
recycling facilities and work, allowing a daily life independent of the
car or public transport. Located on a mews lane in Rathmines it is
sufficiently large to support a family over a lifetime. The former back
garden of a two storey over garden level Victorian terraced house, it
is accessed from a lane to the south with the garden to the north.

Concerns of establishing a relationship with the garden and
maximising daylight penetration in a North facing building where East
& West facades are blank, dictated the organisation of family rooms
at ground and first floor connected by a narrow void. This layout is
expressed architecturally as a “slipped tube” of space, coded
materially in sandblasted concrete, stratified from front to rear,
divided programmatically with joinery boxes. A strong visual and
spatial connection is established between the kitchen/dining room at
ground level and the study on the first floor capitalising on day
lighting and glimpsed views.

This move creates diagonal visual relationships that extend spatial
awareness to the limits of the depth, breadth and length of the house.
Arranged around this conceptually manipulated tube, are the less public
rooms: garage, utility room and WC at ground level and children’s
bedrooms and bathroom at first floor.

A transverse shift in section, across the plan pushes the children’s
bedrooms up by 300mm to allow daylight from the Study on the west at
first floor to pass through to the dining room and kitchen to the east
at ground floor. This shift gives additional height to study and
kitchen and more modest scale for private areas without increasing the
overall scale of the building. A set back at first floor to the rear
maintains separation from the houses to the rear and increases the
amount of daylight to the garden.

The layout allows for an independent or guest bedroom suite at
ground level and gives flexibility to accommodate change in family
circumstances. The modest garden will provide space to grow vegetables
and fruit while the roofs are covered in sedum to replace the building
footprint.

The exterior in common with its neighbours is restrained, choosing a
formal expression of the relationships between internal spaces and
elevation. Windows are floor to ceiling drawing on the Georgian
tradition, allowing daylight to penetrate deep into the plan. Set
within a tight urban context of protected structures, the relationship
with external spaces is not founded on an expectation of privacy
externally but on diagonal relationships that extend the perspective to
distant views and provided a backdrop to the internal activity.

The concrete exposed internally is sandblasted to accentuate the
liquid nature of the material and to record the process of
construction. The front and rear elevations are vented rain screen
facades clad with TRESPA from William Cox, a wood based cladding panel
chosen for it’s environmental credentials. These facades are supported
on independent laminated timber framing -from sustainable managed
sources- with all opening sections clad with TRESPA and lined with
TriIso multifoil insulation to maintain the u-value of the façade. The
Ironmongery from ADA is manufactured by Olivari from Bio Chrome an
environmentally aware stainless steel.
A negotiated tendering process allowed a constructive dialogue
between the design team and a committed and proactive contractor which
translated into viable and cost effective materials and detailing
incorporating environmental concerns from design through to
construction.

–

Posted by Rose Etherington from dezeen.com