U2’s The Edge has filed updated plans for a home renovation at one of Ireland’s most exclusive south Dublin addresses.
The guitarist, whose name is David Evans, is seeking the go-ahead from Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Co Council for alterations to works on his property at Sorento Road, Dalkey.
It would enable him to increase the size and revamp a permitted extension by 20 per cent.
Evans secured planning permission in 2023 to renovate and build a three-level extension to his Sorrento Cottage overlooking Killiney Bay.
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The new plans, lodged in recent days, for the home on a 2.7-acre site seek to increase the floor size across the three-level extension by 158sq m (1,700 sq ft) from 787.3sq m to 946sq m
Planning documentation lodged with the application states that works on the 2023 permission commenced on March 10th, consisting of demolition and enabling works.
Along with the increase in size, the application seeks to add new features to the build, including a (94sq m) 1,000 sq ft space for “archive storage”. It also includes an enlarged bathhouse to accommodate the permitted sauna and plunge pool, a new chef’s kitchen and gym.
The size of the home’s bathhouse has increased from 26.9sq m to 34sq m primarily to accommodate service space.
Documentation lodged with the application shows that users of the bathhouse will enjoy uninterrupted views of Killiney Bay.
The new scheme also retains the studio element that was part of the 2023 scheme, but the studio is now more open plan and on one level instead of two.
Planning consultant for Evans, Sadhbh O’Connor of Thornton O’Connor, has told the council that “the revised design proposal will not negatively impact upon the privacy of neighbouring residents at Sorrento Terrace or within the environs of the subject site”.
On the scale of the development, O’Connor states that “the revised extension, whilst of a larger floor area, will not materially affect the proposal’s perceived scale, given that the extension is provided within the tiered landscape of the subject site.
“Importantly, the revised design continues to remain ‘secondary’ to the existing dwelling, with the proposed increase in floor area principally contained within the tiered landscaping of the subject site.”
Evans’s first attempt to redevelop the Sorrento Cottage property dates back more than 25 years, when a previous application lodged in December 2000 took three years to make its way through the planning and legal process.
Sorrento Cottage has been vacant since the mid-1990s and ODAA Architects told the council in 2023 that their brief “was to bring the existing structure back into use as our client’s primary dwelling”. A decision is due in August.
