A small 18th century building in Temple Bar was in family use as a barbershop for more than two generations when we were commissioned to refurbish the shopfront and interior, to add an extra storey to the building and to convert the upper floors to residential accommodation, with one apartment per floor.
A balcony at the new penthouse floor affords views of the River Liffey in one direction, and Temple Bar Square in the other, giving the apartment a real sense of location in the urban centre, but at a domestic scale. The shopfront and barbershop interior use a palette of materials, including coloured glass and plywood, which recalls Dublin’s commercial world of the 1940’s, the era of the owner’s entry to the trade.
