If you would you like an architectural conservation knowledge challenge, check out the history of housing and the changes over time in Dublin in the article by the City Council’s heritage officer, Charles Duncan, in issue 163 of Context, which looks at the role of conservation plans, temporary cultural uses and pop-up theatre, as well as the principles which underly successful repair, conservation and restoration.
image: Context 163, p15 – Dublin CC by Paul Tierney
Charles Duncan writes:
Henrietta Street, laid out by the politician, banker and property tycoon Luke Gardiner, was built piecemeal over three decades from the early 1720s. 14 Henrietta Street was among the last houses to be constructed as part of a speculative development of three large four bay, four-storey over-basement houses, built by Gardiner between 1748 and 1750. The house remained a residence until around 1850, when it was converted to the offices and court house of the Encumbered Estates Court, and later to a hostel for families of the Dublin Militia. Ultimately, in 1877, the house was carved up to form 19 tenement flats…
… In 2015 the 14 Henrietta Street museum project began. Taking the ‘building as the primary artefact’, Dublin City Council sought to tell the story of the intense history of occupation of this house and street from Georgian origins to tenement legacy. Responding to the project brief, Shaffrey Architects developed a three-fold strategy of support, hold and recover. This the guiding mechanism for addressing the complex range works.
The approach to repairs and renewal of historic fabric relied on the use of traditional materials and established techniques…. The finished result is a house of memory, where the varied lives of its former residents is communicated through its very form and fabric.
Read the full article and find out more
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