Palmerstown House
Renovation, extension and deep retrofit of semi-detached home in Dublin
Project scope
This semi-detached home in Palmerstown had served its owners well, but it wasn’t keeping up. The layout was dated and the rear of the house was dark. The building itself was losing heat faster than any modern system could replace it. The brief was ambitious –
- Transform the house from the inside out
- Improve its energy performance dramatically
- Create a home that feels completely new without moving
We started with the fabric of the building. We wrapped the entire house in external insulation, replaced all the windows and fully insulated the roof.
A new air source heat pump replaced the old heating system.
Together, these measures brought the home’s thermal performance up to a standard that will pay back for decades, keeping the house warm in winter and comfortable year round, while significantly reducing energy costs.
At the rear, a new extension opened up the ground floor with a bright kitchen, dining space and a relaxed living area, all designed to bring natural light deep into the plan.
At the heart of the layout, an internal courtyard draws light into the centre of the original house. This detail transforms the connection between old and new, and gives the home a quality of space that most semi-detached houses never achieve.
We also designed and supplied a sleek German kitchen. From the architecture through to the final styling, every element was considered as part of one cohesive design.
McCann Moore works with homeowners across Ireland, with offices in Hillsborough (near Belfast) and in Dublin.
An internal courtyard that brings light into the heart of the home
The internal courtyard is the heart of this project. We designed it to draw natural light deep into the centre of the original house, solving a problem common to most semi-detached homes: the middle is often dark.
It also creates a visual connection between the old house and the new extension, so the two feel like they belong together, rather than one being bolted onto the other.
And who doesn’t want a sheltered, private space to retreat with your coffee on a busy day?
Sleek German kitchen designed by McCann Moore Architects
We designed and specified the kitchen as part of the wider project, selecting a sleek German kitchen that we also supplied and installed.
The result is a space where the finishes, materials and layout all work together, because they were considered as one design, not pieced together from different sources.
Opening up the ground floor to light and the garden
The new rear extension opens up the ground floor and brings natural light into the heart of the home. From the outside, the scale of the addition is clear, but it sits comfortably against the original house rather than overwhelming it.
