Architect Fergus Flanagan has seen a new kind of client emerge over recent months: the 'no budget' ludicrously wealthy kind.
is most striking commission of late has been an Irish castle, which will be built at an unspecified location in the south east for the princely sum of more than €7m.
'It's going crazy,' the Wexford town based architect said.
'We're rejecting about five projects a week now we're so busy. We are just doing better and better. Some of our clients have no budgets.'
A shell house in Dalkey designed for a UK client who moved to Ireland because of a Brexit company relocation, was one of the 'no budget' jobs.
Describing the dynamic in the Dublin market as 'more than Celtic Tiger', Mr Flanagan said: 'A lot of people have a lot of money but this is another level. We get a lot of hedge fund managers who have moved from London.'
He got the castle commission through Linkedin. 'An Irish employee of a German industrialist saw me. The man already has houses in Monte Carlo, Paris and Berlin. He has a number of large scale factories in Ireland and he wanted to build a castle here.'
After an initial meeting, Mr Flanagan was hired. 'He said he loves Ireland. He said: "I have a 100 acre site and I want a modern Irish castle. There is no budget".'
Mr Flanagan encouraged his team to 'just go for it' and go for it they did.
'That is where you have to reside (mentally). The site was boggy so in those instances you dig a big hole and water goes to its lowest level so the lake came from there.'
Researching the history of how castles were built, Mr Flanagan and his team of five came up with a round tower effect and a timbre structure in the middle surrounded by stone structure and glass.
'We also used a datum: a series of spaces. The wall becomes a journey. He wanted friends to have their own quarters so we designed two curved towers with suites. We also wanted an office and to bring over his four cars: a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche and Aston Martin. We stuck a moat in the front as well, why not!'
The client will only spend a few weeks a year in the house, he added.
Dublin born Flanagan worked in Berlin in the Nineties, getting a job in one of the city's best architecture practices. He met his wife Natalie, who is from Wales and they decided to move back to Ireland and settle 'half way', in Wexford.
'We're living here with our family 17 years now.'
When he returned he was taken aback by how houses were designed here. 'They were designed to stay indoors. I started designing houses with covered terraces and outside fire pits. More of a continental style. I don't look at the Irish precedents.'
He cites his shell house as an example of the unique houses that can be designed through analysis of clients' wishes.
