A2 Architects tops Gate Lodge in Ireland with red roof

Irish studio A2 Architects has completed Gate Lodge, a home in Navan, Ireland, creating a minimal white form topped by a pyramidal roof made of red corrugated metal.

Located on a rural site at the entrance to the Beechville Estate in Navan, the 141-square-metre home was designed for a young farming family who wanted to be close to their parental home.

In creating the simple form of Gate Lodge, A2 Architects drew on the historic lodge structures that would once have served similar estates in the area.

"Taking its cue from local lodge typologies, its formal simplicity drives both external and internal spaces," said A2 Architects director Peter Caroll.

"Thorough research of existing gate lodges in the county identified many of a singular form with corrugated and slated pyramidal roofs," he added.

Organised with a cruciform plan, each corner of the home's square form has been cut out to create four sheltered terraces, three of which can be used as entrances and to store boots and farming equipment.

At the main entrance to the south, a small porch alongside a utility area leads into the heart of the home, where a dining table sits beneath a large, circular void in a mezzanine above.

This circular void aligns with a square skylight created at the apex of the pyramidal roof, which pulls natural light down into the centre of the home.

Around the central dining space, the four arms of the cruciform plan contain a kitchen, three bedrooms and two bathrooms and a lounge area. This can be combined with the central space for small musical performances for the music-loving family.

The mezzanine itself has been left as an open, flexible space beneath the pyramidal ceiling, which overlooks the dining area through the circular void.

"The clients' love on the one hand of farming and all its pragmatic requirements as well as music and art on the other allows for a spatially daring arrangement of a house," Carroll told Dezeen.

"[It] has to at once accommodate the daily life of a farmer with small outbuildings and covered terraces for clothes and wellingtons, as well as a living space over two levels that would allow art to be hung, music to be enjoyed and occasional performances to be held," he added.

Externally, the home has been given a simple white render that helps to emphasise the red-brown shade of the metal roof, a colour that was also used to pick out four drainpipes at each corner.

A2 Architects was founded by Carroll alongside Caomhán Murphy in 2005, with Carroll becoming sole director in 2012.

Previous projects by the studio include a home in Cork featuring a large, angled wall that gives its residents greater access to sunlight and a central courtyard.

Also in Ireland, a dramatic double-height space was added to a terraced house in Dublin and a long gallery-like extension was created for a 1930s home.

The photography is by Peter Molloy.

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