Don’t let its utilitarian exterior fool you. Valhalla is a very smartly designed modernist pavilion set on half an acre of grounds by black type architects Peter and Mary Doyle, which balances living and accommodation.
With its buff brick utilitarian exterior, Valhalla hides a stylish modernist pavilion home that is set across two levels, its layout appearing astonishingly easy when you first look at it.
But this level of simplicity takes years of experience to deliver so confidently, something its modernist architects, the late Peter and Mary Doyle, had in spades.
Address: Valhalla, The Woods, Ballinclea Road, Killiney, Co. Dublin, A96 AR00
Asking price: €1.5 million
Agent: Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty
Light and space were key signatures of their approach, influenced in no small part by Peter Doyle moving to Chicago upon graduating in 1959, to work with Mies van der Rohe, the pioneer of modernist architecture.
When he joined Mary Doyle at Michael Scott and Partners' office, later to become Scott, Tallon Walker, he brought back a wealth of knowledge of Miesian architecture.
After striking out on their own in the 1970s, Peter and Mary Doyle worked on projects such as St Brendan's Community School in Birr, Co. Offaly.
In 2018, the school won €124,000 as part of a €1.5m Getty Foundation grant designed to help the conservation of modern buildings around the world.
This pedigree is important as you wander through the four-bedroom, three-bathroom detached house.
Built in 1972, it has all the hallmarks of the modernist era, a utilitarian buff brick exterior, while inside every room is saturated in natural light in a way that doesn’t make you feel like you’re living in a goldfish bowl.
With a D1 BE-rating, it opens into a teak porch and hall where there is a bank of storage.
To the left pocket, sliding doors lead into a lounge cum dining room, with the kitchen straight ahead, at the heart of its living rooms, which all interconnect.
The kitchen is skilfully designed to accommodate full-height units on its entrance wall so that they sit flush with that façade.
The rest is stainless steel counters and splashbacks with white below and above counter units set in a galley style.
A simple intervention to open this space more to the dining area would be to remove some of the above-counter units and the dividing wall, but in a way that would miss the point.
This room is already washed in light and is open to the dining area.
It also leads through to a large teak conservatory that soaks up morning, afternoon and evening light.
The family room is a great size and opens out to a terrace with a mature cordyline at its centre and beyond to the gorgeous grounds.
The house has been staged for sale by Vanya McCarthy of Stage My Home.
The private south and west-facing garden has multiple outdoor living areas set over different levels.
Mature planting abounds, something you won’t get with a new build, and there’s even a pond and vegetable patches.
The bedrooms work for family life.
There are three doubles and they are up a set of steps from the single.
Three of these share two bathrooms, the family one and a second shower room, which eliminates fights over using the facilities on busy school mornings.
The principal is the largest room and is dual aspect.
It includes a recently refurbished, sizeable ensuite bathroom.
It is the combination of how Valhalla sits into its surroundings and the delineation between its accommodation and living wings of the house that creates a detached residence of distinction.
Adjacent to the grounds of Killiney Golf Club, the property is seeking €1.5 million through agents Lisney Sotheby’s International Realty.
