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Dublin, Ireland – Urban Agency
Built Area: 180.0 m2
Year Built: 2018
Photographs: Paul Tierney Photography
What does one do with a triangle-shaped plot of land? The architects of Tri House built a triangle-shaped home. The lot is actually located at the back of an existing building. It was once occupied by the homeowner’s tree house.
Despite its unusual layout, the design of the house reflects a typical suburban residence. Elements such as a pitch roof, velux windows, attic rooms, sliding doors, and French doors have been incorporated in the design. Furthermore, the unique shape of the home brought about three gardens, one on each side. There’s a green garden, a breakfast garden, and an entrance garden.
Tri House is made of reinforced concrete. Inside, more triangular facets are seen – from the central staircase to the addition of several skylights. The interiors feature interconnected spaces with an increasing-height ceiling.
Notes from the Architect:
Located in a Dublin suburban estate, which typically features modest 2 storey terraced houses with ostentatiously large and deep rear gardens, this project propose a model for horizontal densification. Here we see how “Back to back” typologies and land subdivision have generated vast areas of under- utilised landlocked stock throughout the country.
The awkward triangular shape of the site generated the pure triangular plan of the house surrounded by three gardens; an entrance garden to the north, a breakfast garden to the east and green garden to the south. The three corners of the house are extended to the edges of the site and are “carved out” to create three porticoes which form a series of thresholds, while also articulating the transition between each garden and facilitating continuous movement around the house.The house is slightly sunken and the slopes of the roof shaped to minimize overshadowing onto the neighbouring gardens. The windows are carefully located to avoid overlooking while framing important views, sky, trees, sunlight, etc. The house plays with the “traditional ingredients” of a the typical suburban house with its blue grey pitch roof, painted render, attic rooms, velux windows, French doors, sliding doors, etc in order to “ fit in”. Structurally the house is made out of reinforced concrete wall left exposed internally and insulated and render externally. Internally, the rooms are organized around a central triangular stair case. The finished floor level is sunk 500 mm below ground level. The modest-height ceiling at the entrance level increases gradually when descending to the corners of the house where a series of double height spaces pierced with a skylights accentuate the scale of the rooms below onto which the corner rooms at the first floor level look. The triangle form has been used here as a compositional element throughout the project (plan, section, elevation and perspective) varying from equilateral to isosceles triangle to organize and articulate space and accentuate visual perception; near and far, deep and shallow, low and high, etc. Technique which has been developed during the Renaissance to create “Real” space in paintings.
The building overall creates a compact and dynamic series of interconnected spaces where family life unfold, while still allowing the individual to have a corner of their own.
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Exterior Views:
Interior Views:
Drawing Views:
Bangkok, Thailand’s Pichai House is another home with an interesting shape…
