This project is for a public market building in Donnybrook, commissioned by Dublin City Council. It occupies a prominent vacant site in the middle of Donnybrook village and contains a large food market at ground floor, a first floor restaurant with terrace, and offices on the top floor.
The building is thought of as an openable wall, making a distinctive end elevation to the triangular site at the apex of Morehampton Road. It uses a series of grille-like façades at different modules to provide shutters for the market area, opening as awnings over the stalls, and folding doors from the restaurant to the terrace. The grille motif is continued in the construction of the open-ended blocks forming the stairwells at either end, and is applied as a planted trellis to the adjoining gable walls. The materials used are bronze, timber, glass and concrete, recalling the civic buildings of Paris in the early 20th century. The external space in the foreground becomes a public space for congregation and can operate as an extension of the market. The geometry of the pavement is generated by the surrounding roads.