ARCHITECTURE:WHEN I TELL architect Niall McCullough that I cycle past this building a few times a week but hadn't noticed it (mind you, cyclists have to keep their eyes on the road in Dublin) he was pleased. "I love that. Not all architecture has to shout, maybe one in four projects. You have to have the freedom to shout but not every time."
This is a neat, thin, triangular four-storey building that keeps the building line of the street, carries on the brick of the surrounding buildings and links into the office beside it - on the first floor - but it stands slightly apart too.
Its reds - in the brick, tinted mortar and powder-coated panels - show McCullough Mulvin Architects in rare colour although the vibrant orange interior here was something used to good effect in the practice's Thurles arts centre scheme. McCullough is fond of the orange with brick combination.
The brick used here, and the way the building picks up the roofline beside it and carries on the street line, could be said to make it fit well in its context, but that is not what McCullough is seeking to achieve. "Contextual is an overused word at the moment. I want it to be about strictly easy-going architecture that fits well into it place."
This office building is opposite but perpendicular to the Clare Street entrance of the National Galley, itself slotted into a Georgian streetscape. This is something that we need to learn to do well, says McCullough. "Such design can be about the ordinary; a fine part of the weave and culture. In 21st century culture it is hard not to always shout and that's happening in every aspect of life but we need to ask ourselves, does the city have sufficient culture that it doesn't have to shout every time?"
He would like the city to evolve in a way that makes a culture of architecture. "What is going to be original about Dublin in 50 years' time? Do we want the same skyline as every other city?"
Finding a language of design that will make Dublin distinct often involves working with the Georgian infrastructure. Office buildings tend to be in Georgian houses - showing just how flexible these structures can be - or in huge glass palaces but here is another way: neatly infilling small spaces in the city.
The simple flatiron building is so small that it is "like a building in Tokyo", says McCullough. Certainly, while companies may bemoan the single tenancies that prevent large floor plates, on streets such as Grafton and Camden, these roads have retained a vertical charm and interest.
This office building is connected to the Georgian offices next door, home to Sheehan and Company Solicitors. McCullough Mulvin had done a project for them before, changing a ground-level store into a large timber and glass entrance topped with a wobbly metal strip.
When the solicitors bought the two-storey café beside this they asked McCullough Mulvin back to create an extension for their growing company. They stripped the building to its concrete frame and added two storeys. The concern of the architects was rhythm and texture in a design that is "not pastiche and not contextual".
It is interesting that two Dublin buildings have recently opted for simple forms with interest in the fenestration - the other being the Billets building by Grafton Architects on Merrion Row.
In this simple redbrick building much of the animation comes from humans: windows in internal walls help inhabitants connect with action and views beyond their own rooms while from the outside, the floor-to-ceiling windows enable outsiders to see people walking within.
