The Irish Times

Dublin architects' firm bought a car-park and turned its mews building in a Georgian lane off Fitzwilliam Square into a light-filled open-plan office and four apartments. Anyone seeking new clients will usually show them a portfolio but in the case of Newenham Mulligan and Associates (NMA), prospective clients who visit the architects' offices will be sitting in an example of the firm's work. The practice had been in Baggot Court, Dublin, for nearly two decades, tucked in behind Dublin's Georgian façade in a former paper warehouse. In the past these backlands, in this case to the rear of Fitzwilliam Square, would have been teeming with activity generated by tradespeople and horses. This mews laneway is still a kind of transport hub, only now the area is full of car-parks attached to the rear of Georgian office buildings jammed with 21st century commuter traffic. A few years ago NMA bought the car-park beside its office with a view to creating a mixed-use building. "It used to be dead here in the evenings and even during the day we felt lonely," says architect Tom Mulligan.