“Tom de Paor is a genius,” says David O’Donoghue.

“Working with him was a rollercoaster. You know, they say you meet your architect and you love him, work with him and you hate him, then 10 years later, you look at your house and you realise you loved him all along.”

Wicklow based de Paor, who has just been elected to Aosdána (which honours outstanding contributions to the arts in Ireland), has a reputation for making tricky, arty spaces.

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“I don’t know about that,” says O’Donoghue, who commissioned the 51sq m (549sq ft) house in 2006, when de Paor was designing Stoney Road Press, the fine art print studios run by O’Donoghue and James O’Nolan, next door.

“But this house is fabulous – small but perfectly formed. The orientation is spectacular too.

“It faces off the road, is completely secure, and captures the sun. The spaces feel really generous too.”

Sunken bath

The idea was to use the house for artists’ residencies, and O’Donoghue, who has three children with his wife, Eileen, also rented it out over the years. With one bedroom, it’s not exactly a family home, more a groovy urban pad.

Downstairs, there’s a generous livingroom with huge glass windows to the patio, and a bathroom with a sunken bath.

“That was the first thing to go in,” remembers O’Donoghue. “It was dropped into the foundations, and they built the house around it.”

Upstairs, there’s a kitchen, with a dining/study space on an internal balcony, and a double bedroom off it.

Wooden panels

There are architectural touches throughout – like light switches that work sideways, because the architect felt you always turn lights on and off as you pass them and that you’d prefer a sweep of the hand; and poured polished concrete floors, plus wooden panelling that runs from inside to out.

“It’s really liveable,” says O’Donoghue. “Tom is an extraordinary character. We went to meetings, and came out not knowing what we were going to get. I feel privileged to have worked with him, and come out with a house like this.”

See for yourself – it’s for sale with Gunne at a guide of €245,000.