Architect Joe Lawrence on crafting spaces that enhance the everyday
Celebrating 20 years, Lawrence and Long blend heritage preservation with contemporary design and collaborative practices to craft inviting spaces full of light and detail.
Where do you start in creating a building? Apart from the obvious answer: with years of study at architecture school; the answers can be surprisingly different, depending on the architects in question. For Joe Lawrence of Lawrence and Long Architects, it begins with intuition.
“Some tend to overthink it,” he says from his office on Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Square, “but you have to trust your gut. Architecture can be too academic,” he continues, warming to his theme as I look at images of a studio the practice designed, where a light box perches on top of an old stone building, surrounded by mature trees. It looks overwhelmingly inviting.
Inside, and out, it’s the details that count. A window is set in at an angle, so that light and shadow diffuse into the room, a double-height door adds drama and a sense of openness, then a smaller unit creates a moment of intimacy, giving you the feeling of expanse as you step through into the working area beyond.
Elsewhere, in a strikingly-contemporary redbrick terrace at Ranelagh’s Charleston Road, the new buildings update memories of their older neighbours, with bay windows and steps up to the front doors. Inside, the detailing is delicious, with concrete and timber stairs, hidden lighting, and generous living areas opening onto terraces, to bring an extra sense of light and space inside.
Joe Lawrence and Pierre Long set up their practice in 2005, after having both studied at UCD, and then worked together at legendary practice de Blacam and Meagher Architects. “It was so creative, with loads of interesting and very talented architects, all working from this basement in Shane de Blacam’s house,” he says. “We had great times, and it was a brilliant foundation for architecture. John Meagher was so gifted,” he continues, describing the late-founding partner with clear affection. “In a lot of ways, he taught me everything. He trained my eye – looking at paintings, pottery, cars and prints, flowers, gardens, John was interested in it all.” Joe also credits Meagher with his recognition of the role of intuition, recalling the sketches that architects would do to prove all the elements needed for brilliance were there.
The decision to set up on their own was another of those gut instinct things. “We didn’t discuss it for ages,” he recalls. “It was probably over a pint. We handed in our notice on a Friday, and that was that. It was April 1, 2005. April Fool’s Day,” he says ruefully, although the decision proved to work out remarkably well. And despite their abrupt departure, Joe remained on good terms with Meagher, who was godfather to his second child.
A crucial part of the practice’s success is the team’s evident deep love of architecture, and Joe has an eye also honed by travel. Holidays are a chance to see buildings, experience how they feel, or simply to sit in a city square, and soak up the feel of the place around him. “We are so lucky to live in Europe – that we can be in Italy, or France or Sweden within a couple of hours. We have all these things.” These days, his sons can go off and do their own thing, and the family will meet up later, but he does admit to a certain amount of bringing (possibly even dragging?) them along in the past. His point is that photographs just don’t do the experience of a building justice. They can give you a view, but they won’t add context, landscape, social conditions. It really is a case of, you have to be there.
Looking at a project like Charleston Road, which was completed in 2023, it would be tempting to think that these are architects who have little time for old buildings, but the opposite is true, as their conservation of a Georgian building at Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Place for IPUT Real Estate shows. Also completed in 2023, the once-elegant townhouse had done time as offices, and the renovation project involved working with stucco plaster specialists, stone carvers, wood workers, furniture makers, and artists. According to Joe, the challenges of buildings such as these go beyond tackling years of neglect, crumbling masonry and dry rot, to include integrating today’s services and systems in such a way that our built heritage can live and breathe again. “It can be like a jigsaw puzzle – no, it’s more like Tetris,” he says, and it is clearly a puzzle he delights in.
That’s the joy of being an architect. From a sketch, then a drawing, through the refining and tweaks, suddenly it goes on site, and it goes up, and that’s an amazing gift we’ve been allowed to have, to do work that might enhance your life
Restored warehouse project on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, photographed by Marie-Louise Halpenny.
Curved bays on Charleston Road, photographed by Peter Molloy.
A sister project for the same client is the renovation of a trio of townhouses on a late-Georgian terrace at Wilton Place on the Grand Canal. There, the pleasure lies in finding ways to make each apartment space work. This takes clever thinking, given that we live entirely differently these days. Who, after all, has an attic stuffed with maids?
“It becomes more special, and more unique,” Joe says, describing revealing the beauty of plasterwork and windows, while making sure that the technical solutions to sound transfer, fire safety, and energy ratings are either invisible, or entirely sympathetic. Here, he credits the team at Lawrence and Long. “That’s what’s great. Everyone has different skills, so we can always rely on people who are better at some things, and who enjoy it.”
Lawrence and Long’s work includes interiors, houses and commercial projects such as Dublin’s Devlin Hotel, offices at Thomas Street, and apartments on Cardiff Lane. Their restoration of the only two remaining warehouses on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay in Dublin shows their deep empathy with heritage projects, while contemporary designs demonstrate how all building is a constant process of updating, thinking anew, and looking ahead while still respecting the past.
“It’s collaborative,” says Joe, considering how he begins each new project. The possibility of greatness comes when the skill of the architect is met by the ambition of the client. “When you listen, and when there’s a nice energy and trust, then you can make a bit of magic.” At Fitzwilliam Place, the right client, and the right building meant the magic could happen: “the house still has its garden, and it’s facing just the right way to get beautiful light in.” He goes on to describe working with artists and artisans on the project, with commissioned pieces of furniture from Alan Meredith and carpets by Helen Blake with Connemara Carpets, coming together to really help the space sing.
One day you’re meeting artists, and another “it will be steel fabricators and welders, or maybe an ecologist talking about roosting bats. It’s fantastic. All these different people, working together.” Whether it’s a conservation project, an extension or a brand-new build, each project has its moments of elation. “That’s the joy of being an architect,” he says. “From a sketch, then a drawing, through the refining and tweaks, suddenly it goes on site, and it goes up, and that’s an amazing gift we’ve been allowed to have, to do work that might enhance a site, might enhance your life.
“We’re doing a lovely project down in West Cork,” he continues. “It’s right on the water, and it’s very contemporary. There are three tiers, and the roof of each becomes the terrace of the floor above. It’s reacting to the site, to the trees on the site.” And if that sounds like a dream home, in many ways it is. Joe’s own house in Dublin dates back to the early 1900s, but he does hanker after something entirely new.
“One day,” he says, “I’d love to have a house like that, like what we’re building in Cork, in this wild landscape overlooking the sea. My idea of bliss is having twenty friends over on a Saturday night, with a barbecue and a glass of wine or beer, out there on the terrace. Those are the best nights ever.”
Photography Liadh Connolly
This feature originally appeared in the spring/summer 2025 issue of IMAGE Interiors. Have you thought about becoming a subscriber? Find out more, and sign up here.
Also Read
