Home > Journal > Issue Nine > Scale & Façade in County Limerick
1 / 2 / 3

Scale & Façade in County Limerick - Mícheál de Siún

The real emphasis here again however is given to the façade, and the tactile crafting of material to create a sense of threshold, depth and identity. Large double height recesses at first floor level in the three-storey block express the staircases in timber while giving a balcony and corner views to the living spaces. The entrances at ground level, flanked by kitchen and/or bedroom windows are located within clearly defined recesses, accentuated by colours at the jambs. A black terrazzo seat is moulded into the composition and this exaggerated depth of façade is also utilised to yield details such as a flower box under a bedroom window in the lower block.

Each of these articulations in the façade emphasise a sense of weight and plasticity, amplifying the apparent depth of the construction beyond a standard cavity wall whilst reiterating a sense and scale of human living. Similarly, though with my own personal exception to the galvanised steel balustrades, these facades were worked to be ultimately contextual with low muted openings in the single storey block continuing the streetscape, and more articulated three-storey block apparently ending it.(It is also noted that all AAI site visits could benefit from the provision of pints and sandwiches afterwards compliments of the contractor.)

The attention to the making of a building's skin, a hung element to filter light and heat, or a crafting of weight and material to filter threshold gave these two schemes an unlikely common ground. The significance of the distance and quality between outside and in is patent, from the complexity of a large public building to the intricate detail involved in living in houses.