wacky houses
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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 A1VENTURA 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 expressivelyOnly in California…………..
KB2
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