Concrete beams and warm timber draw the eye to the garden and wild bay beyond …
Four Winds, a reworked 1940s bungalow in Sutton, North Dublin was designed by Dublin-based architectural practice Brennan Furlong Architects.
The project, featuring in an upcoming episode of Room To Improve on RTE One, has received numerous accolades and international recognition. It was central to examples of the practice’s work displayed at the Time Space Existence exhibition in Venice in 2025, and was selected for a Special Mention at the 2025 Architizer A+ Awards.
Four Winds was originally Brennan Furlong’s clients’ grandparents’ home, and the project involved a reimagining of the house to cater for a young family, remaining sensitive to the family history of the house while introducing creative elements.
Materials used in the project were inspired by local landmarks and the coastal setting including the 1840 Martello Tower, the 1972 St. Fintan’s Church by Andy Devane and the 13th century Chapel of Mone in Kilbarrack, sited within “the Healthiest Graveyard in Ireland”. Caroline Flannery, of Interiors by Caroline, was the interior designer on the project.
Gareth Brennan, Partner at Brennan Furlong Architects says: “The project was a special one for our practice to work on. As a result of Covid, the design phase stalled for quite a period, and this pause allowed us the space for numerous conversations with the clients – we got to know each other well as a result, and this familiarity allowed us to bring a lot of our client’s personality (and a bit of our own!) into the finished house.
GARETH’S TOP TIPS FOR RENOVATION
1. Talk to a few architects, based on trusted references if possible. You’ll be working with them for quite a while – possibly a number of years – and there will be lots of meetings, conversations, decisions and possibly a few difficult points along the way. It’s important that you have a comfortable relationship as you’ll be placing a lot of trust in them to design the spaces that will form your home for many years to come.
2. Be realistic about your budget from the outset. Your architect will likely recommend bringing a quantity surveyor on board to advise on costs throughout the project. While this may seem like another front-loaded cost added to the project, the role a good quantity surveyor will play in managing costs (and associated stresses) is invaluable.
3. Trust the team. If you find the right architect at the beginning, who can recommend other required team members (quantity surveyors, engineers, building contractors, specialist subcontractors, for example) trust in their professionalism to deliver the project for you. The most successful projects we’ve been involved with are those where this trust (and respect) from the client for the team working on their behalf is evident from the outset – it encourages all parties to go above and beyond on your behalf – like Aesop’s fable of the North Wind and the Sun.
4. Don’t pay attention to design fads. You’ll find infinite examples of what’s in at present for home design and decoration online. Much of these will date quickly (the cycle of what is fashionable seems to be spinning faster than ever before) and in five years you can find yourself living in a home effectively “date-stamped” by fixtures and fittings. These are expensive and costly to re-do, so take your time, talk to your design team, listen to their suggestions, and find what is really at the core of what you want your house to feel like as opposed to the look. Once you’ve done that, the rest will follow and you’ll have a house that will age but not date.
5. Appreciate the value rather than the cost. You will hear lots of examples of how some neighbour, friend or family member “got the same extension for half the price”. If that’s the case, it’s absolutely not the same. Contractors are all fishing in the same pond for skilled labour and building-regulation compliant materials. Building is not magic! It’s subject to economic forces like every other sector. While unfortunately building is expensive relative to pre-Covid times, building work – done carefully, comprehensively and correctly – has a long-lasting value. If you pay peanuts … Caveat Emptor.
Need to know: In Room To Improve, Dermot Bannon will bring clients to view Four Winds as he sets about future-proofing and modernising their Raheny home.
