Architects: Clancy Moore     Photography: Fionn McCann     Construction Period:  2022     Location:  Dublin, Ireland

This project arose in lockdown, to make a space for a novelist to write in isolation in their garden. The site, behind an existing terrace of houses, was inaccessible to builders, so we designed the room to be constructed off-site and craned into position.

This contingency governed the design and it became an exercise in éspace minimum – its weight had to work with the capacity of the crane. The weight limit also allowed us to dispense with conventional foundations in favour of augured ground anchors. The shape, too, was informed by the offsite approach. The room’s structure is an exoskeleton with raised corners linked to lifting eyes. Within, we found space for a rich internal world, lined in red-stained beech and mirror. It provides a desk to work from, and a daybed for rest.

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Placed in a corner of the garden, the room seeks to capture a series of spaces between itself and the surrounding planting. Recognising that repose is as important as production, the room reaches beyond the site also, providing a periscoped distant view to the sea from the daybed via its mirrored ceiling.

Text provided by the architect.