As published in Beta-Plus’ World’s Best IV:
“Tucked into a historic street in Dublin, No. 17 is a quietly radical residence by Helen Kilmartin, founder of Minima, where she lives with her husband, Garreth, and their cat, Bollie. Rather than overwriting the Georgian fabric, the project operates with the precision of a conservator and the composure of a contemporary editor. Floors were lifted, numbered, and re-laid over heating; cornices were restored; fireplaces resurrected; stairwork rebuilt in burnished brass with a mahogany rail. New insertions in steel by Marco Zanusso-mirror cabinetry, glass boxes, and sculptural lighting—act not as ornamental departures but as disciplined continuities.

Materially, the house is a study in restraint with consequence. Polished plaster, microcement, Medoc timber, Rosso Levanto stone, lacquer, mirror, leather, and brass are used in calibrated doses to control sound, light, and touch.

Furniture and lighting from Promemoria, B&B Italia, Cassina, Glas Italia, Fortuny, and Davide Groppi are deployed as instruments rather than trophies—tuned to weight, sheen, and profile. Silk-and-wool rugs slow the rooms. Art by John Gerrard, Jared Green, Siobhan MacDonald, Jobi Hickey, Patrick Scott, Ciaran Crowley, Maxine Real del Sarte, Ursula Burke, and others is installed with the quiet severity of a gallery-never as an afterthought.

The sequence of the house reads like a long, exacting edit. The kitchen is concealed within steel and mirror; the black-glass bathroom is set like an embedded object above it; brass stairs and an I&I runner draw the eye upward; the dining level is wrapped in reflection; and the master suite is colored after the resident cat. Nothing is gratuitous.

The project doesn’t announce itself-it accrues. By the time one has moved through it, the dominant impression is not of objects collected but of decisions compounded.

No. 17 is a modern interior that has learned from its envelope-urbane, tactile, acoustically calm, and durably precise.”

Architect: Adrian Hill of Wilson Hill.
Interior Architect: Monica Giannattasio of Minima.

Photographer: Barbara Corsico
Project: Residential, Contract