RIAI | Irish Architecture Awards

Citation

Northern Over €300,000

U-shaped in plan and with a traditional roof form the house is instantly striking for its aesthetic poise and balance. The setting is both coastal and rural. Offering prospect and refuge, the house looks outward towards the sea whilst folding inwards to form a courtyard. Reading as beach house, courtyard house and farmhouse - and this is in no way to limit it - the house 'stands up' to its surrounding landscape with an ease and grandeur of scale. Sure architectural hands have been at work here and have produced a notable contemporary house and a model, to coin a phrase, of 'how to build sensitively in the Irish landscape'.

Architect's Comment
Coney Island has a wild rugged beauty, which has inspired many, including rock legend Van Morrison. For our clients, it offered an idyllic setting for a contemporary retreat.

The front of the house is approached through a courtyard gate in a high stone wall. A long pond separates the cedar pergola-covered path from the sheltered courtyard. Once inside, the entrance hall consists of a lofty glass and cedar cube structure, flanked by traditional rendered gables.

A rich oak staircase leads from the entrance hall up to a study balcony overlooking the living space and a master bedroom and ensuite behind. From the hallway, a single slot window gives a brief taste of the spectacular coastal view, which is revealed in full on descending the marble steps into the main living space through a two storey, frameless glass bay window.

The double-height living area and open-plan dining and kitchen areas open onto a paved sun terrace. A more introverted family room can be closed off from this space when sea and sky overwhelm.

Borrowing from the principals of beach defence construction, a simple staggered line of timbers forms a subtle boundary, protecting the sun terrace and bay window from the elements.

Clients' Comment
Our key criterion for the design brief was that our new home should be totally different to where we had lived before. We needed a change from the traditional cellular layout and introverted plan of our former manse home and we longed for a more open-plan and contemporary way of living. Our initial reaction to the innovative ideas of our architect was one of caution however the end result is beyond our greatest expectations.

We had fallen in love with the coves, headlands and strands of Coney Island set against the blue outlines of the Mourne Mountains and were keen that the house should provide a combination of modernity set against these peaceful coastal views.

We felt it important that great emphasis be placed on using high quality, natural finishes and simple, robust, low maintenance detailing.

For us, the glazed bay window is a key factor in the success of the final design framing the breath-taking vista of the sea as a continuation of our living space within.

Our new home provides us with a great way of life - from walking on the beach to boating from our slipway in the summer to appreciating the wild views on a cold winter's day.