RIAI | Irish Architecture Awards

Citation

Eastern Under €300,000

A new wing has been added to an existing traditional house. At the heart of this new wing is a sun room, which enjoys views of the garden and a view of the newly created entrance courtyard.

The choice of materials used in the new wing from stone walls to the copper roof relate are beautifully detailed and well executed. The building is sited well and with harmony in the landscape and provides an important reference for development in a rural setting.

Architect's Comment
The existence of a natural spring has meant that there has been a succession of houses on this site since at least 1847. We found the remains of numerous of these disused buildings scattered across the site as well as a derelict cottage still intact when we were asked to develop a design for a contemporary house.

From the beginning particular emphasis was put on working within the scale of the existing structure and with a palate of materials consistent with its agricultural context. A new wing was added to the renovated existing house which forms a protected courtyard with the steep embankment to the south completing the enclosure. The walls to the new wing are constructed exclusively with stones gathered on the site. Particular care was taken to frame views of the landscape with window joinery made of oiled Iroko. These windows 'furnish' the simple rooms and are protected by a series of the zinc-clad canopies.

The house is entered directly into a 'day room' which has large sliding doors to the courtyard on the south and a covered timber deck to the northwest. In this way the activities of the day can capitalise on the available sunlight. Lights also penetrate this room through a strip of roof-lighting. The existing cottage contains an 'evening room' which focuses on the chimney breast and the kitchen. Here the ceiling is clad in painted T&G boarding. The accommodation is completed by three bedrooms and a study with a concealed and protected timber-decked garden to the west. A stone floor is common throughout the house.

Unpainted render completes the palate of external materials. The courtyard has a gravel floor and a wild-flower meadow has been planted on the rest of the site.

Clients' Comment
The house is a far more perfect realisation of our mandate than we could ever have imagined. It compels us to inhabit it, through its own comprehensive beauty and the remarkable access it opens, visually and physically, to the sweeping landscape of which it forms part. It makes its space effortlessly available to us, it brings the outside in and is endlessly engaging. This is the warm, practical, serene house which generates the light-filled days and the cosy fireside nights we hoped to describe.