The Irish Times

We are all aware of the deity that is said to lurk within well designed and executed details and the Miesian edict rings true in this Dublin 6 house: the attention to detailing lifts the spirit. This brief for this project, by Design Strategies, was to overhaul a three-storey, three-bedroom house, add in an extra bathroom and possibly another bedroom. The project also involved conservation work. While beautiful detailing in itself can be pleasing; when it is just applied to perfecting standard elements to give a smooth, swish finish it offers neat and quiet satifaction but when it involves innovative, clever and creative solutions - built to perfection with conjoining elements lining up with each other - then you are into 'wow-factor' territory. The first whoa factor greets you just inside the ground floor entrance to this house where an iroko tongue-and-groove box protrudes from the wall into the vast hallway. If you thought that you were in a conventional house then this would be read as a large cupboard but the nautical ironmongery on the door offers a clue: this box is actually a bathroom that floats off the floor.