On a site once known as the “Lantern of Ireland” for the number and scale of its stained-glass windows, CANICE Architects has turned an 1820s latrine into an artist’s studio whose triangular rooflight glows like a beacon after dark. The Irish practice, founded in Kilkenny in 2017 by Damien Curry and Emily-Ann Curry, completed the project for the Butler Gallery. Behind a boundary of historic stone, the studio gives the gallery its first artist residency space.
A pair of former latrines dating from the 1820s sit within the grounds of Evans’s Alms House, now home to the Butler Gallery in Kilkenny. Single storey and triangular in plan, the two outbuildings are built into opposite corners of a random rubble stone boundary wall. One remains untouched, kept as a record of the site’s original layout, while the northern latrine was earmarked for conversion into an artist’s residency studio.
CANICE Architects’ proposal was to insert an independent triangular timber structure within the existing stone walls, rather than adapt the latrine’s original fabric directly. A large projecting triangular rooflight was designed to bring in all of the studio’s natural light. At night, the same volume can be lit from within, turning it into a beacon visible across the gallery grounds — a related instinct, inserting a new independent volume inside an existing shell, shaped the adaptive reuse behind Worrell + Yeung’s Studio Barn in Rhode Island.
The 13th-century St John’s Priory is believed to have extended across much of this site, and the surrounding quarter became known as the “Lantern of Ireland” for its stained-glass windows. The new studio’s top-lit projection was designed in recognition of that history of coloured light, rather than as a neutral skylight detail dropped in without context.
Exposed timber framing defines the interior, left bare to highlight the triangular proportions of the space rather than concealed behind a finished ceiling. No windows or openings were cut into the existing historic walls, a deliberate decision to keep the stone and the former latrine structure intact.
A conservation-led design guided the project from the outset: the external historic stone walls remain untouched, with a functioning studio sensitively inserted within them. It’s a strategy that leans on the building’s own history rather than against it, echoing what the practice calls the “as found” triangular plan of the original structure, rather than replacing it with something unrelated.
Damien Curry of CANICE Architects described the design’s ambition in a statement: “The design respected the heritage setting while offering the gallery something new, playful and of high quality. The new internal structure raises its head above the old walls, acting as a light box during the day and a beacon at night – signalling that something new has come to this artistic quarter of town.”
Butler Gallery’s own assessment echoes that ambition. Anna O’Sullivan, the gallery’s Director and Chief Curator, said in a statement that “Canice Architects transformed what is a Protected Structure, on our site, into a beautifully designed and light-filled Artist-In-Residence workspace for Butler Gallery… The innovative design maximised the benefits of a tricky site and achieved a hugely positive outcome which will be enjoyed by many.”
One detail stays with you longer than the timber frame or the rooflight itself: the choice to leave the second, untouched latrine standing exactly as it was, a quiet reference point beside the new one — proof that the site’s original triangular logic was there to be recovered, not invented. A similar instinct, letting an existing, humble volume set the terms for something new, runs through Ono’s Two-Fold Studio in Fairfax, where a shingled garden room took its cues from what was already on site.
Artist Studio Residency for Butler Gallery by CANICE Architects | Location: Kilkenny, Ireland — Year: 2025 — Key materials: Timber, Stone