Ways for the design lover to spend an inspiring day out
suggests an inspiring day out and looks at reasons why two large schemes are attracting objectors.
Printmaker and artist Niamh McGowan is now a full-time interior designer, with some impressive work to her credit.
Although she doesn’t like to call herself a designer — rather an interior stylist, but whatever the title, her work is really good — warm, moody, innovative and always restful.
Her thing is tone and she uses paint like a master, creating graphic sense in a room with an all over paint effect, (ceilings, everything) and then some carefully-chosen furniture, art and found objects.
Her work is organic, interesting and also very welcoming; you may have seen her show house work at Kinsale’s Cluain Mara development, which we featured on Home magazine some time ago. (The next edition is out on April 21.)
An insight into the printmaker’s style is now being offered in what she terms, the ‘Glorified Lean-To’ at her little cottage home in Co Wicklow, which was also in the shortlist for the first ever episode of Home of the Year on RTÉ.
Niamh is offering the chance to explore colours and textures and more on April 21 and it sounds like a great way to spend time with a mother, sister or friend at €75 a ticket (also including a home-cooked lunch along with ‘some fizz’, she says). The course will offer inspiration for decorating with an emphasis on paint colours and she’ll also touch on styling the home using nature as a resource.
And to do all this, Niamh has just completed a glass-roofed structure in the house in Co Wicklow, to make use of the gardens and to host events like this. Don’t worry, the Glorified Lean-To is heated and despite the late spring, should be toasty for tutorials.
n And in terms of styling the home, the Hay laptop brush is what every self-respecting blogger and insta-preneur needs for a good spring clean. No more banging your keyboard upside down, or shaking the ould notebook — it’s part of the new collection from Hay X Cos and costs €19. Made of beech, the fold-out design means the coarse end can clean the keyboard and the soft brush can wipe the screen. Hear, hear, say hip creatives everywhere.
Hay is highly prolific and increasing its seasonal range for Cos year on year. This includes the simple, J77 chair, which was originally designed by Folke Palsson for the Danish Consumer’s Co-Operative Society in the 1940s and now sells for €135 in white, black and beech. All versions are made of solid beech.
Similarly, Hay’s J110 dining chair, (which we love and which is not selling through Cos, but a number of other sites), was designed originally by Poul M Volther, and revived in solid beech, It has the same seat height as other dining chairs of the collection, but because of its high back and armrests, it can function as an easy chair, or even an office chair it’s available at www.futureandfound.com at €2i5 in natural beech. Other colours cost slightly more.
n And because we like to roam across all price points, why miss the opportunity to show Davidson’s very high end, Evoke Collection on show in the company’s Chelsea Harbour, London showrooms.
The luxurious Truman side cabinet seen on this page, will be launched over Design Week 2018, and its USP is not only the modern design, but the innovative use of vellum in its doors. Curvy, soft and richly understated, it costs £19,451 by commission.
Those with an interest in interiors and who are not taken by the charms of the West End, should take a bus trip to Chelsea Harbour — you get a great view of the city on your way — and the destination has a blinding array of interiors products, fabrics and finishes — window-shopping heaven.
This year’s Irish Construction Awards has nominated Páirc Uí Chaoimh as its ‘Project of the Year’ with builder, Sisk honoured for its work on the high-profile Cork stadium. The new Cork GAA HQ received the award following a public and industry vote and picked up the Judges Silver Awards, presented by well-known architect, Angela Brady OBE.
Remember when we said there was quite a strong anti-reaction to the proposed rugby museum on Limerick’s O’Connell Street? Well, that’s bubbled up into an objection by An Taisce to An Bord Pleanála with a rather comprehensive list of nay points.
The McManus family-backed development, (they have invested up to €10 million in the scheme, it’s believed and have Paul O’Connell on the board of directors), was designed by one of the country’s leading architects, Niall McLaughlin, who also brings a significant international reputation with him to Limerick.
However, while An Taisce pronounced themselves in favour of the museum/experience and are delighted with the idea, etc, they nixed the concept as a whole, setting out a logical and annihilating set of objections.
Our National Trust cited the scale of the design, the lack of reference to the Architectural Conservation Area and overbearing height in it’s submission.
It also suggested that the grant of permission suggested a disregard of the planning framework for the area, the detailed plans for which were passed by the city council members and adopted into planning rules.
An Taise also opposed the demolition of three early 19th century Georgian buildings which were, it quoted, protected “from inappropriate actions” under the Limerick City Development Plan and further added that this “core heart” of the city’s Georgian heritage was protected, with an obligation on the city council to protect those buildings within the Architectural Conservation Area.
An Taisce also pointed out that the council, in its positive decision, effectively ignored the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht’s submission that “sufficient architectural heritage special interest” justified the “retention and appropriate adaptation” of the buildings concerned.
One of the earliest points made by commentators in Limerick, was that the building was not only too high, but that it also broke the perfect symmetry of the surrounding Georgian terraces.
An Taisce also highlighted this point saying that the museum design broke with the ‘established parapet height’ of that side of O’Connell Street and risked setting a precedent in an Architectural Conservation Area:
“If this proposal goes ahead in its present form it will undermine the work of public representatives and officials who, after lengthy consultation, adopted policies for the conservation of these buildings and streets.”
And then it followed with the killer blow — the possibility of claims against the council for previous refusals of planning permission in the area — by suggesting that the demands placed on developers up to this could be deemed to be, at best unnecessary, or even ‘vexatious’, if the museum went ahead in its present form.
Finally, An Taisce gave the coup de grace — which can be boiled town to ‘lovely idea, lovely job; but more suitable elsewhere.
It suggested the central business district, which was outside the conservation area. We’ll see if ABP agrees.
n And in Cork, the rather sleek Horgan’s Quay scheme of an hotel, offices and apartments in the former CIE/ Irish Rail site is also under appeal to An Bord Pleanála.
This time, it’s on behalf of commercial semi-state body, the Port of Cork Company who says the €160 million scheme by HQ Developments is premature in light of the area continuing to be a busy, working quayside.
It appears the company is looking for some form of reassurance from the developer that its operations around Horgan’s Quay are “not constrained or negatively impacted” during construction.
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