The Irish Times

Only minutes pass between trams as they clackety-clack past this house and passengers who gaze out of the window at back gardens blurring by will notice this home because it has, in effect, turned to face them. The brief given to A2 Architects, who were appointed by a couple - with two children - who had just bought this house, was for "breathing" space. The designers' response was that, since the Luas was now a feature of their back garden, this extension should create a new "front" to the house. The three-and-a-half metre addition, across the extraordinary width of 12 metres (most houses measure seven to eight across), is now known as "Brick Thickness" and is designed to act as a buffer between public and private spaces. Yet it is not so much a new front as another front and its design borrows from the other side of the house, in its form, craftsmanship and material content.