This 18th-century coach house in Wexford has had the most extraordinary renovation

With just two internal cross-walls splitting the building into three sections, Fintan liked the idea of a procession from one room to the next. However, he had concerns about the building’s energy efficiency and the potential for cold settling between the original interior and exterior walls. “It aligned with an idea we had to disengage from the existing walls as much as possible,” explains Fintan. “That began by removing the two original interior walls and rebuilding them as double walls to make the home more energy-efficient.”

Once this thermal break had been created, it made sense to do the same with the protected outer walls. Fintan and his team designed a two-storey internal glass wall to run lengthways along the south side, set about 300mm inside the original external walls and anchored by the new cross walls. “You actually look out onto the original walls, and through the landscape beyond,” muses Fintan. “It makes the building part of the view.”

“We did inevitably lose some historic fabric during the process,” explains Fintan, “but you hope to get a bigger gain in return. It’s an industrial 18th-century building, so the improved divides were still in keeping with the character and generous proportions of the space.”

Now, the original walls are a landscape in themselves. The commitment to this building’s farming history is rather astounding, flowing from the spotlights placed between the glass and exterior wall to highlight the workmanship poured into the building, to the minimal repair done to the original structure. “The only work we did there was replace anything damaged or lost, we didn’t even replaster,” says Fintan. “I like the fact that to a passing person, it doesn’t look any different to how it did before.” Through subtle renovation that both pays homage to the building’s past and offers it a modern purpose, this building’s life has been extended into a new era.