Small is beautiful as architect owner opts for simplicity

WHEN architect Emmet Scanlon bought his 1930s Dublin house, its vendor, Maureen Bolger, wistfully said: “I presume you’ll come in and knock everything down and build a big extension.”

If, and when, she returns for a look-see at the recently finished make-over at her old family home of decades past, she may be favourably surprised: she might even feel at home.

Extension mania gripped us during the boom, and, even now, despite the building slump, still holds sway. Magazines are devoted to extensions.