Design Challenge and Design Ideas

No. 10-12 Hanover Quay is located in Dublin Docklands. The project comprises of the restoration of an existing three-bay 1880’s warehouse and stables building and the construction of a contemporary extension over. These historic pieces of industrial fabric are Protected Structures, which have been carefully integrated into the design of the office building. The project forms a key piece in the completion of the new urban quarter between the River Liffey and the Grand Canal Dock. Hanover Quay is designed to maximise the sites’ locational attributes, and to provide a successful transition between the historic industrial fabric, contemporary neighbouring buildings, and new public open spaces. The three-bay 1880s’warehouse, with its brick and stone walls, is converted into offices, with a new roof structure.

External Collaborators
The project was delivered in collaboration between MOLA Architecture, the design Architects, and OMP Architects, the executive Architects.
During the course of the project collaboration between other consultants played an important role in determining the outcome and success of the project.
Hanover Quay consisted of the retention of two Protected Structures and the careful restoration and integration of these was assisted by Cathal Crimmins, a Conservation Architect. The condition of the existing fabric was reviewed before a conservation strategy was implemented.
One of the most technically challenging aspects of the project was to provide a deeper basement and underpin the entire existing wall structure. The structural engineers, Barrett Mahony Consulting, developed structural strategies which allowed the retention of the existing fabric, while respectfully inserting new structure around it. The new warehouse roof is one of the main features which celebrate this successful collaboration, making a considerable, positive contribution to the character of the docklands, and provides active streetscape onto Hanover Quay, overlooking the Grand Canal Basin.
The careful design and high quality materiality of the new office element makes a strong contribution to the streetscape of Green Street and Three Lock Square, both important pieces of public realm, which are a destination area within the docklands.

How the brief was fulfilled

The main challenge of the project was the delivery of offices, within a site that is almost wholly occupied by Protected Structures, and the contrasting scale between those historic elements and the neighbouring contemporary schemes. The imaginative reuse of the existing fabric, and the sensitive design of the new structures within the site constraints is a successful response to these challenges.
The scale, height and massing of the new office structure is a strong response to its location onto Three Lock Square, matching that of the adjoining Reflector building and creating a consistent streetscape onto Green Street, and its subdivision into three vertical forms articulates clearly the historic grain of the stables and the laneway.
The project is an excellent example of how historic fabric can be retained and re-used in a sensitive and imaginative way, forming part of a contemporary scheme, and contributing to the sense of place. The adaptive reuse of the existing buildings, combined with the contemporary offices, provides both the client and tenant with a building that offers a great variety of spaces, all finished to a very high standard, within a unique setting – the large, open plan warehouse with clerestory lighting,
the new office element with views over the water in three directions, a roof terrace, a choice of entrances, and generous bicycle and welfare facilities within the basement area.
The new office structure comprises of three distinct vertical elements, a central element which aligns with the old laneway, and northern and southern elements which cantilever over the roofscapes of the warehouse and stables. The sensitive design of the new roof of the warehouse, with its diagonal zinc finish, hidden gutters & gangways, and clerestory windows is an excellent example of the appropriate separation between new and old building fabric.
Dublin’s docklands has been transformed over the past 20 years, and is now a vibrant urban quarter and a key piece of new cityscape, with a huge variety of cultural, commercial & residential buildings, all organised around a network of new urban spaces.