{"id":113612,"date":"2025-10-31T06:16:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T06:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/113612\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T06:16:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T06:16:17","slug":"the-house-with-the-big-o-in-dublin-6-brings-the-garden-into-every-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/113612\/","title":{"rendered":"The house with the big \u2018O\u2019 in Dublin 6 brings the garden into every room"},"content":{"rendered":"

Asking price: \u20ac3.25m<\/p>\n

Agent: Sherry FitzGerald (01) 4966066<\/p>\n

\u200bYou\u2019ve heard about the mint with the hole. Meet O House, the house with a geometrically perfect circular porthole at its centre.<\/p>\n

Located at 10 Palmerston Villas in Dublin 6, the property is one of those built by \u2018boutique\u2019 developer Jamie Moran, who has had a number of upmarket schemes to his credit in the capital. Recently completed on a site between two garages in the upmarket Palmerston neighbourhood, its svelte lines and bold design are reminiscent of the one-off architect designed contemporary trophy homes that became so popular in the latter years of the Celtic Tiger.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An aerial view of the O House, 10 Palmerston Villas, Dublin 6<\/p>\n

\u200bThe front door \u2018key\u2019 is actually a remote control, which opens the up-and-over garage designed for two cars (or one car and a guest-bedroom, should that layout be required instead).<\/p>\n

The big reveal comes with the fact that when you step in through the front door, the garden appears to be actually inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came up with the idea of putting a garden at the centre of the project,\u201d explains the architect Pierre Long, of Lawrence and Long Architects. \u201cAs a practice, we\u2019re very interested in gardens and the relationships to buildings. It\u2019s effectively a city site. Traditionally, you might have the garden at the front and at the back, where you\u2019re looking at the garden and it\u2019s part of the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

O House wraps itself around that perfectly circular courtyard that sits at its heart, an inward-looking design turning its back on the street, revealing its secrets only to those who pass through the discreetly industrial facade of Corten steel, sandblasted concrete and Danish handmade brick.<\/p>\n

\"Architect<\/p>\n

Architect Pierre Long<\/p>\n

\u201cThe facade is a bit like a curtain,\u201d Long says. \u201cYou pull it back, and you\u2019re into this special environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brick facade itself, however, is worth a closer look. Long describes the technique: \u201cThat\u2019s a long brick, and it\u2019s been cut, so that you get that angled facade, just to give it a little bit of detail. It\u2019s almost like a weave, but it\u2019s just stepped like that, just to give us a little bit of texture and light and shade.\u201d The side of the house has also been \u2018facaded\u2019 with the same brick, albeit the flat version this time.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The back exterior of the O House, 10 Palmerston Villas, Dublin 6<\/p>\n

Once inside, the house reveals its complexity. The form rises from the street down towards the west, dipping and expanding as you move through the spaces. \u201cThe garden in the middle of the plan, tracks the sunlight all day long and every room gets natural light,\u201d Long says. \u201cWhen you come in from the street, you\u2019re into the tallest part of the building, which is a double height volume. You see the structure of the roof above. The building has the luxury of space at over 3,350 sq ft, but in terms of height, it is quite luxurious too. The spaces in the hall are double height, almost triple height, actually, because the roof is rising there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The upstairs landing of the O House, 10 Palmerston Villas, Dublin 6<\/p>\n

The bespoke curved staircase is the other thing that grabs your attention. \u201cThe stairs are important because they\u2019re the first thing you see when you come into the hall,\u201d Long notes. \u201cIt\u2019s a very elegant staircase that is wholly supported from the top and the bottom and there\u2019s no structure in between. So it\u2019s just as light as possible, as fine as possible. When you come in, you see the stairs in this double height volume, and then you see the garden, the staircase almost looks like it is suspended there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The staircase of the O House, 10 Palmerston Villas, Dublin 6<\/p>\n

The structure is mostly timber, according to Long. At the centre is a ring of concrete and set into this are the timber beams that support the whole structure. \u201cThere\u2019s no steel in the house,\u201d Long says. \u201cIt\u2019s all timber structure, timber roofs and beams. The bedrooms have these beams that you can see from within, and then the columns. It\u2019s very sculptural.\u201d The timber structure was prefabricated offsite for precision, as was the sandblasted concrete element on the first floor, which was cast as a single piece with no joints.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The kitchen of the O House, 10 Palmerston Villas, Dublin 6<\/p>\n

As you move through the ground floor, the roof continues to expand and contract, creating varying ceiling heights that compress and release the space. \u201cYou come into the kitchen, which is tall, and then there\u2019s the living room off that, which is a floor and a half as well,\u201d Long says. \u201cThe timber is quite relaxing. It\u2019s a natural material. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s part of the circle, but there\u2019s something very nice about a circle. It\u2019s very peaceful. All of those things between the materials and the actual geometry of the building, it feels very pleasant and calming.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the kitchen, there are luxury touches \u2013 a hidden pantry here, a discreet wine cooler there \u2013 \u201chidden from view so you can avoid temptation on one of those stressful Wednesday afternoons,\u201d Moran says. The worktop is made from the same porcelain as the floor.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The living room of the O House, 10 Palmerston Villas, Dublin 6<\/p>\n

The garden courtyard isn\u2019t just a visual centrepiece \u2013 it\u2019s a functional one. \u201cYou move around the garden,\u201d Long says. \u201cYou enjoy the garden, but you don\u2019t have to go outside. You walk right around the house, and you\u2019re constantly walking around the garden.\u201d<\/p>\n

The natural light it rings in is supplemented by strategic openings elsewhere. \u201cAll the daylight is either from the garden itself, and then there are some windows at high level,\u201d Long explains. \u201cThere\u2019s another courtyard at the first floor which faces east, and that gives light to some of the other bedrooms and bathrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"One<\/p>\n

One of the bedrooms of the O House, 10 Palmerston Villas, Dublin 6<\/p>\n

Accommodation includes a ground floor with open-air lobby, kitchen and breakfast area, large pantry and utility room, boot room, dining area, sunken living room, home office area, shower room and twin garage \u2013 almost 2,000 sq ft of living space on this level alone. Upstairs, a large veranda-style landing overlooks the courtyard and provides access to three ensuite double bedrooms, including a master bedroom with walk-in wardrobe, ensuite bathroom and a balcony. The second bedroom has two balconies, while the third bedroom also has a walk-in wardrobe. A laundry room completes the first floor. The layout can accommodate a fourth bedroom if required, and there is provision for a lift.\u200b<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A bathroom of the O House, 10 Palmerston Villas, Dublin 6<\/p>\n

The building process relied heavily on BIM (Building Information Modelling) technology in its design, according to Long. \u201cYou have 3D models, so everybody\u2019s able to check everything beforehand,\u201d Long says. \u201cA lot of the contractors and subcontractors we\u2019ve been working with now would all be using those packages. You\u2019re sharing the one drawing. You can walk through it, you can see all the issues. It\u2019s a bit like a puzzle. It avoids issues on site.\u201d<\/p>\n

Palmerston Villas is a quiet cul-de-sac between Palmerston Park and Cowper Road, with Rathmines, Rathgar, Dartry and Ranelagh all within walking distance. O House\u2019s central garden offers the possibility that you could be anywhere though, the only sound the birds and the gentle service sounds from Brookfield tennis club next door.<\/p>\n

Sherry FitzGerald seeks \u20ac3.25m<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asking price: \u20ac3.25m Agent: Sherry FitzGerald (01) 4966066 \u200bYou\u2019ve heard about the mint with the hole. Meet O…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113613,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60,898],"class_list":{"0":"post-113612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-latest-news-ticker"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113612\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}