One of Ireland’s first eco-friendly apartment blocks comes with cake and coffee

No6 The Daintree, Pleasants Street, Dublin 8

Asking price: €375,000

Agent: Felicity Fox (01) 6334431

You can have your cake and eat it at a penthouse apartment at No6 The Daintree, a revolutionary sustainable building complex off Pleasants Street in Dublin, which also accommodates the well known and trendy Cake Cafe at ground floor level.

So if you fancy a cup of coffee and a slice of cake, or anything else on the menu, you can just wander downstairs.

The one-bedroom 549 sq ft city-centre apartment is one of eight residential units in The Daintree, a compact mixed-use space, designed with the environment in mind by Solearth Architecture in 2004.

It was one of the first multi-storey eco-friendly buildings built in Dublin. “It’s a very special project,” says Brian O’Brien, one of the two Solearth architects who designed it (along with Mike Haslam), at the request of Paul Barnes, the owner of Daintree Paper, the former paper crafts and luxury stationary shop on Camden Street (today it’s The Last Bookshop).

“Barnes was a great guy who had a new vision of living in the city and was ahead of his time,” adds O’Brien.

“He sought out myself and my partner at the time, Mike Haslam, when were just starting off in our architecture career. I’d spent some time in the US and Mike had worked in Germany, and we brought back new ideas.

“Our remit was to create a nice tranquil space for both businesses and living. We were told it should smell like baking bread.”

The plan was that the ground floor and the basement would house Daintree Paper and the Cake Cafe and open on to a public courtyard space.

The first floor would comprise offices, accessed from the street and a solar terrace, with apartments to the rear looking south. The second floor and third floor would also accommodate more apartments.

The Solearth architects were instructed to make the project as ecological as possible.

“It was one of the earliest examples of a multi-story timber building in Dublin City,” says O’Brien. “Everything was to be low emission and as green as possible.

“As a result, we did a huge amount with natural materials. Both the structure and the finish of the building are made of timber and rendered with lime and copper.”

The insulation is made from sheep’s wool and solar thermal panels mean that the water is heated by the sun. A geo-thermal heating system was installed to heat the apartments.

“It was one of the first large-scale heat pumps in the city and had three different bore holes that went down 500-metres deep into the ground and brought up the heat,” says O’Brien. The apartments are low energy at a rating of A3.

When it came to designing the residential units, O’Brien and Haslam attempted to have as much height and light coming in as possible in every room and to make the most of the south-facing views.

“Some of the apartments on the top floors, such as No6, have higher ceilings than the others, and they all have big windows to make the most of the city landscape views, and split-level floors where possible,” says O’Brien.

The hallway in No6 leads to one double bedroom on the right when you enter. It has windows on three sides and flooded with light.

The open-plan kitchen/dining/living area has a barrel-vaulted ceiling. There are cream kitchen units, wooden floors and a blue gable wall. It’s dual aspect and very bright. Double doors here lead to an outside balcony that overlooks the city.

In keeping with the green remit, the roof of The Daintree was designed with foliage and wildflowers as a habitat for birds and insects, and to keep the air clean, despite the building’s central urban location.

Downstairs, there’s an archway leading to The Daintree courtyard and a tranquil lush garden, designed by landscaper Robert Heslip. A space was created for bicycles here and a shared car club planned for the residents.

“On top of the green gantry, there are 20 original art objects made from found objects,” says O’Brien.

“They’re the work of a talented Brazilian artist called Beta Melo. On top of that, there’s a whole lot of recycled bamboo from an art project originally made for the Irish Museum of Modern Art. Both were commissioned by Paul Barnes.”

For many years, Solearth retained an office on the first floor of The Daintree, but it was eventually converted to an apartment.

“Having an office space in the middle of the project allowed us to interact with the new residents,” says O’Brien.

“If someone had a question, for example about the new heating system, they could knock on our door and we could explain how it worked. It was unusual, but very nice as architects to get that direct feedback.”

And he’d often sit in the Cake Cafe watching as people came through the Daintree Paper shop from Camden Street.

“If it was their first time there, they’d burst into a smile as soon as they entered the courtyard. That look of surprise and happiness on their faces was just beautiful.”

Haslam has moved on and has his own practice, Haslam & Co Architects, and O’Brien still works under Solearth Design, but based in Cork.

“We were very lucky in that we were the first set of Irish architects to be convinced of the power of green design 20 years ago,” says O’Brien.

“As a result, we became the go-to architects for a lot of the new green visionary clients back then and worked on the eco-village in Tipperary and the Airfield Trust, amongst other projects.

“These days, the world has caught up and green design is more mainstream. But Daintree will always have a special place in my heart. Whenever I’m in Dublin City now, I still pop in there and have a coffee in the Cake Cafe.”

Felicity Fox seeks €375,000 for No6.

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