PAUL ARNOLD ARCHITECTS

ANALYTICAL ASSESSMENT
Howth College is a National Monument dating from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century.

Function: College - to house priests of the adjacent St. Mary's Collegiate Church.

The great extent of the survival of much of the original building fabric together with the age and possible function of the structure, results in these remains constituting a unique and rare element of our National Architectural Heritage. This building forms an important part of the streetscape of Howth.

The shop at the front is in separate ownership, while the other parts of the college to the rear have been alienated.
The building has had several layers of occupation, with related varying floor levels, testimony to the building's capacity to cope with change.

SCOPE OF INTERVENTIONS
In principle major interventions are reversible, and in a contemporary idiom, while some minor interventions such as replacement windows in bronze and oak, are less recognisably contemporary.

Consolidation of the masonry was carried out by rebuilding a small portion of the walling, grouting and repointing most of the exterior, with lime harling to the most weather-prone portions.

NEW INTERVENTIONS
The main new structural intervention comprises a structural steel frame with four hollow tubular columns (containing rainwater pipes) supporting the intermediate floors, the entire frame stiffening the existing walling, which also is resrtained by tie-bars and new patras plates.

The house is organized around a new dogleg stairs which serves to enclose four rooms at the lower levels, and discharging centrally into the main living space at the top floor. This room is roofed by a new zinc clad structure with extensive glazing providing extensive views to the sea in both directions.