Haymarket, Dublin

Haymarket Workplace is a commercial office development located adjacent to the Luas Line at Smithfield Square in the city centre with a total Gross Floor Area of 11,360 sqm. In an area that has undergone considerable regeneration over the last 20 years, the Haymarket Workplace completes the edge to the square with a considered massing and material study in brick.

The ground floor level incorporates separate commercial, retail and restaurant/café uses with access from Haymarket and Benbulben Street. Access to the office space above is via a double height entrance lobby off Smithfield Square

Reddy A+U developed an elevational response to the site context with a brick framed structure which frames the large double storey glazing to the office floors. The façade is a layered approach with subtle splays in the brick reveal to create a play of light across the elevation.

The approach essentially disguises the scale of the building and ensures critical relationships in the streetscape. Parapet levels and ground floor planes are respected and aligned.

Arising from a study of the Smithfield heritage and the sites past use as a market building, the use of a stock brick was a strong theme to relate to the site's past and to ensure a modern interpretation of the industrial warehouse history.

The building is modulated on four sides through the alternating use of brick and the vertical brise soleil steel panels in front of the glazing. The design concept successfully negotiates the complex relationship between new and old, referencing the historic and the contemporary. This is most clearly demonstrated by the brick façade which is both sensitive to its context and visually striking. 

Handmade bricks were sourced from Petersen Tegl in Denmark in three bespoke shades, developed to be sympathetic to the neighbouring Grade 1 listed Sessions House. The Roman format bricks create a horizontal emphasis across the façade and reflect the sturdy masonry characteristic of the area, whilst the handmade nature of the surface is exploited by using the brick on edge to create sills and soffits.

To emphasise the feeling of movement, the mortar joints are recessed horizontally and filled vertically, creating variation and depth of the mortar joint shadow. To form a more vertical fenestration pattern and add further articulation, the window reveals are deep and chamfered on plan, fanning out from the centre of the office floors to take advantage of the unusually panoramic views.