wacky houses

Several Martello towers have been converted; the one near Bray Dart station was done in the 1960’s, later sold to Bono. One in Malahide was on the market recently. Even more churches have been converted. What is wacky about converting a church or tower? Seems wackier to build a TV station underground!

mother theresa’s/teresa’s what? :confused:

Are you referring to the actual Mother Teresa house- out near Inchicore (or Walkinstown?) direction? A classic, ’tis true.
What about the house over near Croke Park that’s sandwiched between the railway line and the canal? (Not sure of the road- as a southsider I make it my business not to know too much about DNS :rolleyes: )

My friend lives in a free-standing folly-tower in the garden of his parents’ house, but I wouldn’t call it a house in its own right- no kitchen or jacks. Also, it should be a protected structure but it’s not (though they do take very good care of it), so he mightn’t appreciate a film crew putting it on the map.

Have you thought about barge dwellers in places like Hazelhatch (on the Dublin-Kildare border) or Sallins (not Dublin)?
Or the park-keeper’s house in St Stephen’s Green?

I’m scratching my head to think off-hand of others…

EDIT: What about Harry Crosbie, who lives in a warehouse overlooking Grand Canal Dock?
EDIT2: Or the woman who lives above the Happy Ring House on O’Connell St.? Or anyone who lives in 100 St Stephen’s Green? I know the houses aren’t odd, but the locations are certainly unusual.

Any more and I’ll have to charge you a consultancy fee. 😉

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Aaaand…
The Irish Landmark Trust is guardian of a remarkable group of buildings available for short-term letting, though none is occupied year-round as a house. Light-houses, gate-lodges, etc. I’m sure they have a URL. Not sure how many are in Dublin, though.
Also, Nationwide did a feature on the organisation not so long ago, so the ground might be too freshly trodden for you.

i know someone who lives in a hacienda near ucd, its pretty wierd.

A five minute report on ‘wacky houses’. Methinks a comment on the quest for novelty and anything that can be understood in 5 minutes as the staple diet offfered by most TV a bit more appropriate here. What is it MTV for the architecturally mildly interested but don’t push it?

@newdecade wrote:

Is the house between railway and canal just before you get to Marino? It’s green and white little cottage???!
And Harry Crosbie, who lives at Grand Canal Docks warehouse, is that the warehouses near Bolands Mill?

I think the lady of the Happy Ring House moved out so they are no longer residents of O Connell Street….

The little house is on the left as you go out of town over a bridge- you’re probably right that it’s the Marino road, but I can’t be sure.
I think Harry Crosbie’s place is on the spit of land that separates Grand Canal Dock from the Liffey, facing onto the dock (Hannover Quay?). Boland’s Mill is on the other side of the dock.
I heard on the radio recently- Pat Liddy interview- that the lady was still living on O’Connell Street, though it could have been recorded some time ago.

Lest anyone thinks I’m giving away personal details of the above owners, all of this info is not only in the public realm, it has been broadcast on the radio in the last couple of years too. I’m no stalker. 🙂

@newdecade wrote:

Do you know anything else about the tower in Malahide? Was it sold? Is it the one near Sutton?

There’s another Martello Tower currently undergoing renovation (though that word falls short of describing the extent of the works) on Killiney Hill Road near Ballybrack village.

I cannot remember when/if the Malahide tower was sold, saw it in the Irish Times Property pages a few years ago.
The Martello at Bray was converted in the 1970’s and I heard that a bathroom was built into one of the walls, 12 foot thick.
The next one along the coast is on Killiney beach, south of the station, was sold (after a long time and big price reduction) circa 2001 for about 1 million. Was owned by an American,
The next is quite elevated, on Killiney Hill road, and as mentioned in an earlier posting is being re-done. Views from this will be superb.
Dalkey Island’s tower is I think now locked with a steel door.
The tower at Bullock (Bartra) is being renovated/converted and there was (is?) a row with An Taisce about a bridge link to a proposed dwelling.
Sandycove tower houses the Joyce Museum.
There was a tower I think on the site of the Peoples Park in Dun Laoghaire – now destroyed. Something in the hidden recesses of the mind tells me it was used in the Harbour works.
Seapoint and then Sandymount, latter looks a bit sad, varnish on doors should be redone.

They were also built on the Chesapeake.
Nice, but not as nice as Staigue Fort.

I think you forgot the Martello tower in Blackrock

That green area around it has since been tarmaced, hasn’t it?

Thanks Taylor, I forgot about that one. Idea was to have an overlapping field of fire for the cannon mounted on the roof.
Devin – I think there was a cycle path planned along there? Have to go on the Dart next time to view.

There is the Martello Tower in Sutton which is just at the start ( or end) of the Howth hill walk. I passed it last weekend. That one was sold for about 500K ( ish) within the last year. It is one of the few houses in Dublin recently that had to reduce price – as it was originally offerred at 700K.

500K is within middle income salaries but the tower seems impractical for a family. As for views there isn’t much in the way of windows.

was the idea not to ensure that from each tower you could see the next one along the coast so that a fire signal could be sent to Dublin should the French appear anywhere on the irish sea from Wexford up?

Dodger – I think not. The idea was to lay down heavy fire, otherwise why bother with the ones at Killiney when Bray can clearly be seen from Dalkey Island. See http://www.dmna.state.ny.us/forts/glossary/martello.htm – It has a drawing el Architino would be proud of.
Also, there used to be a telegraph tower on Dalkey Hill, between Vico and Sorrento Road…not sure if it still stands.

Also, there used to be a telegraph tower on Dalkey Hill, between Vico and Sorrento Road…not sure if it still stands.

Probably conerted into a spacious 300 sq feet studio. A positive steal at 1 million euro.

Check out this house:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/images/P1-AD641_WJETHO_20051104185128.gif

West Coast Woman
To Build Crash Pad
Out of an Old 747
Ms. Rehwald Asked Architect
For Curvy, Eco-Friendly;
Meditating in the Cockpit
By ALEX FRANGOS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 5, 2005; Page A1

VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. — Francie Rehwald wanted her mountainside house to be environmentally friendly and to be “feminine,” to have curves. “I’m a gal,” says the 60-year-old retiree.

Her architect had an idea: Buy a junked 747 and cut it apart. Turn the wings into a roof, the nose into a meditation temple. Use the remaining scrap to build six more buildings, including a barn for rare animals. He made a sketch.

“When I showed it to her in the office, she just started screaming,” recalls the architect, David Hertz of Santa Monica. Ms. Rehwald, whose passions include yoga, organic gardening, meditation, folk art and the Cuban cocktails called mojitos, loved the adventurousness of the design, the feminine shapes and especially the environmental aspect.

“It’s 100% post-consumer waste,” she says. “Isn’t that the coolest?”

Pretty cool idea, I wouldn’t mind living in a 747

Wingspan on a 747 is about 200 feet, so it will be some house if the full length is used.

Can you just imagine some airhead (sorry) design commentator:
“The dramatic entrance to the building is up a narrow flight of steps that penetrates deeply into the mass of the main volume, between it and the main vertical fin (into which is built a pizza oven), which is in stark contrast to the horizontal planes. The strong vertical striations of the polished aluminum textured surfaces are obtained by hand hammered and later desert sand-polished edges. Artworks, in the form of Warhol-esque safety notices, restrained use of lively colours— mainly bright orange—and cleverly built-in seating enhance the architecture, which is intended ‘to excite and challenge the occupants’
One hundred and seventeen rows accommodate functional seating and circulation areas, and since walls are de-emphasized with obscure Celtic hieroglyphic scribbling, these levels are defined principally by floor and ceiling planes. The owner, concerned with the method and drama of natural lighting, insisted upon roundy porthole windows. This has clearly been an important factor in the design of the building, as it contributes to the changing character and psychological implication of space.
“Internally the building is organized around central corridor space defined by two aisles. Below is a sunken level, hollow to accommodate mechanical services, the approach to which is rather torturous and obscure. At the upper level is the most dramatic space: an architectural zone-pod for meditation, finished with reinforced plexiglass, an element in yet a part of the greater space, above which run two parallel mezzanines spanned by a wing-shaped bridge. Between two, skylights rise as giant clerestories, intensifying natural light in the center of the space that receives it on all four sides through its peripheral glazing. Functionally, the building is a studied, politically architectural statement. Architecturally, it tends to extend beyond its own aerial context. It cleverly establishes a general urban scale and a particular internal scale, both compatibly and expressively

Only in California…………..
KB2