D2 Townhouse in Dublin, Ireland by Jake Moulson Architects

Curved bay extension at D2 Townhouse with bespoke cast-iron cladding. Photo by Tim Crocker.

Detail of the cantilevered cast-iron and glass extension. Photo by Tim Crocker.

Curved bay extension features bespoke patterns of digitally prototyped cast-iron cladding panels. Photo by Tim Crocker.

Interior view from the cantilevered powder room. Photo by Tim Crocker.

Powder rooms sink recess lined in veined quartzite. Photo by Tim Crocker.

Glazed pyramid, planters and wrought iron railings. Photo by Tim Crocker.

What happens when you combine the flamboyance of Bowie’s glam alter ego Ziggy Stardust and drama of Stanley Kubrick, with plenty of architectural rigour? This sentence in itself sounds so damn bizarre I almost don’t even know what I’m trying to ask. Regardless, the obvious answer to this convoluted question is Jake Moulson‘s deliciously weird and wonderful D2 Townhouse renovation in Dublin. By the way, calling it a ‘townhouse’ is plain wrong, and merely referring to it as a renovation doesn’t quite do this project justice.

When the London-based architect was invited to work on this project in 2013, the first in his solo practice, the existing site in the heart of Georgian Dublin stood as a 5-storey dwelling sandwiched between offices and car parks. Distinguishing it from its neighbouring townhouses was a substantial garden, containing one of the few remaining original coach houses, which marked this project as an important heritage conservation.

The building was in urgent need of attention, discovered as an unoccupied office with the mews in a state of extreme disrepair, further compromised with a series of insensitive additions. Invited to restore the building into a single-family home, Jake Moulson aimed to “revive and amplify its original spirit, applying contemporary experimentation, daring and ingenuity, reigniting its spatial drama and making it a lush oasis in Dublin’s city centre.”

Custom thermoformed Corian and concrete kitchen. Photo by Tim Crocker.

Moooi kitchen cabinet, and steel and white oak table in the foreground, custom design by Jake Moulson, and made by AJB. Photo by Tim Crocker.

Thermoformed Corian and concrete kitchen unit to the right, view to the brass parlour to the left and burnt timber corridor through the opened door. Photo by Mitsuko Moulson.

Brass parlour with leather inlaid seating and hidden storage. Photo by Tim Crocker.

Detail of brass parlour with leather inlaid seating. Photo by Tim Crocker.

Wrought iron railings dividing the gallery and dining room with custom laser-etched steel floor. Photo by Tim Crocker.

Moulson, who’s approach has been holistic and audacious, describes the project as “a nucleus for fantastical departure.” Analysing all aspects of the building’s possible atmospheres, both physical and historical, was brought into rhythmic interplay with “riffs initiated between imagined pasts and projected futures.”

Augmentation of existing light was the main priority. Allowing it to flow between micro-spaces through a series of careful interventions make each window, room and door a directional layer that opens onto the next. “An accumulation of deep, inhabitable bays, viewing platforms, light-boxes, light-capturing devices and reflective surfaces frame the sky and redistribute it into the house,” explains Moulson.

Library room with custom ceiling mural painted by Morag Mysercough. Photo by Tim Crocker.

Entry to master bedroom. Photo by Mitsuko Moulson.

Quartzite ensuite washing area in the master bedroom. Officially dead! Photo by Mitsuko Moulson.

Quartzite interior inside the master bedroom shower pod. Photo by Tim Crocker.

Every one of the architectural interventions here is bespoke – the careful incisions, removals and additions, linings and furniture all form part of the overall design vision. These include a unique cast-iron cladding system, digitally prototyped with a repeating and changeable pattern; a bespoke laser-etched Adamesque steel floor; a brass pantry and a geological, sci-fi inspired kitchen curtain in thermoformed Corian; an onyx-lit under-stairs toilet, and distinctive joinery with mirrors that dissect views and sharpen the light.

Simultaneously, conservation best practice has been applied to every aspect of the project. From breathable materials and lime renders to custom solutions like the pressure-differential ventilation voids to draw away moisture from lower ground. In the Coach House, new custom frameless glazing takes the light down to reimagined stalls while incorporating bat cavities, to protect and fortify local ecosystems.

Entry to the dressing room. Photo by Tim Crocker.

Custom dressing room joinery. Photo by Mitsuko Moulson.

Details from the dressing room. Photo by Mitsuko Moulson.

Stained blue door on the children’s level. Photo by Mitsuko Moulson.

Bespoke children’s bed, table and storage cupboard. Photo by Mitsuko Moulson.

Curved bay extension interior with steel floor mirrors and views of the coach house. Photo by Tim Crocker.

Axonometric crosssection of D2 Townhouse, courtesy of Jake Moulson Architects.

“Channelling D2 Townhouse’s Georgian inheritance, with its formality, flamboyance, pomp and procession, I wanted to reinvigorate an imagined life, give the house back its body, to re-dress it sharply against the aged grit and grain of its surfaces, and to love it where it had been neglected,” says Moulson. “The result is a disorientating and seductive compression-piece, mixing dialogues between art, architecture, design, science and fictions, from the intimate to the flamboyant, and from the restrained to the spectacular.”

This uncompromising project, where the utmost consideration, craft and innovation were poured into each minute detail, offers an entirely singular aesthetic. While not for the faint-hearted, I applaud Moulson’s unapologetic commitment to the unknown, in a time when most projects are, consciously or otherwise, moving towards a homogenised and predictable social-media-approved aesthetic.