51-54 Pearse Street

Integrating a terrace of three mid-nineteenth century protected structures with a contemporary extension

Located on a tight urban site, the key design objectives of the building were twofold. First, the building needed to utilise existing structures, cellular offices, and circulation to successfully integrate a terrace of three mid-nineteenth century protected structures with a contemporary extension. Second, it was to encourage and enhance the communication and collaboration of its occupants through carefully a considered scale and arrangement.

Client Magennis Property Ltd.
Location Dublin 2, Ireland
Year 2009
Size 3,600m²

​Traversed by a series
of bridges

The building is organised around a central light filled atrium which provides a dramatic articulation between the protected structures and open plan that accommodate the building’s social and interactive spaces (reception, waiting area, tea stations), the atrium provides amenity and active links between the new, environmentally responsive building and the refurbished Georgian buildings.

​The robust materiality of the building includes board marked concrete, oak joinery, and mild steel balustrades.

Sliding screens complement the simplicity of the rubble and brick walls. The timber joinery and lime render of the Georgian Buildings have been carefully refurbished and integrated into the development.

The sustainability strategy for the building includes a BMS-managed natural ventilation system to provide a high level of environmental comfort. Fresh air and cooling to the building is delivered by way of an active north facing facade generating airflow to the central atrium which also acts as a stack. Thermal mass and passive cooling are provided by the structure’s exposed concrete fabric. 

Externally, the design promotes the visual unity of the protected structures and promotes the regeneration of the streetscape while simultaneously giving expression to the new building to the rear.

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