Architecture Wednesday: Walled Garden House

While it’s a rather lovely house, what makes it interesting is what surrounds it: the ruins of multiple old stone sheds and outhouses that were restored to retain the history of the site and form the backdrop of the new build.

And that new build is two distinct A-framed volumes, one of which is a 2-story section where the upper floor cantilevers over the lower to create a covered entrance walkway, while the other A-frame is a simpler single-story volume. These 2 volumes are connected with a flat-roofed single-story building that gives the two distinct structures space to stand independently of one another and allow light to penetrate into the walled garden. It also helps to reduce the scale of the building to reflect the scale of the surrounding old stone structures.  The new buildings are a mirror L-shaped reflection of the existing stone ruins that create the walled garden between the new and old.

The building's materials are a celebration of the locale; the stone cladding used on the lower section of the new building is reclaimed from the fallen stone walls on site and so it’s as old as the stone structures yet crafted in a modern manner to highlight the contemporary addition to the site.

Atop this stone cladding is a Tyrolean plaster band that runs around the entire house, tying the different volumes and materials of the house together while a black corrugated metal roof—which mimics the roofs on nearby agricultural buildings—covered the entire home. In addition taken to creating a house that, while very modern, mimics the old buildings, is also quite environmentally friendly. The house is built using prefabricated panels of light gauge metal steel, is super insulated, has triple glazed windows, a mechanical heat recovery system, an external air source heat pump, is extremely airtight, and has roof-mounted photovoltaic panels. The house achieved an Irish Building Energy Rating (BER) of A1, the highest possible grade. 

Now that’s all good, but is it nice? Well, there’s a spacious Great Room with living area and fireplace, dining room with glass walls on two sides, and a sleek modern kitchen. On the same floor are laundry, storage, powder room, and the primary suite with bathroom and walk-in closet. On the second floor are a media room, guest room with en suite bath, and a third bedroom and bathroom.

It's all very sleek and rustic, old stone and metal, and walls of windows to the countryside.

As always, click to emBIGGERate …

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