Showcase of contemporary house design at its very best

Tommy Barker is given a tour around the Courtyard, an architectural delight, completed to the highest of standards in material and style.

THE Courtyard shows what you can achieve when you think outside the box, outside the boring box and bog standard home palette.

Finished just a year or so ago, after an 18-month build, this 3,000 sq ft Cork suburban home has the highest of standards, inside and out, in materials and finish, in design input, and in sheer ultimate living quality.

The building wraps around three sides of a courtyard, making for a real sun trap, and the hard stone surfaces mean the heat build-up on a sunny day must be close to Equatorial.

The Courtyard was built in the former back garden of a small cottage on the Rochestown Road in Cork city. An adjacent cottage has also been replaced by a modern, well-styled but wholly traditional new-build at the foot of Clarke’s Hill, finished in cut Donegal quartz. The exact same stone was used to face the wall of the Courtyard, but that’s where the similarities begin and end: this is unashamedly, unapologetically up to the minute, yet in a way which isn’t going to date.

Estate agent Lucy Wolfe, who seeks €1.6 million for The Courtyard, bills it as “a newly-built two-and-a-half-storey, four-bedroomed residence of superbly planned living accommodation, with elegantly proportioned living accommodation literally wrapped around a beautiful and exceptionally private courtyard with elevated terraces.”

She nails it in her brochure description, and the pictures here show it to be all this and more. A visit endorses it, but be warned, there will be building envy when you have to leave.

It is a tasty way of building a large house on a small site, it seems there’s more house here than there was ever space for on the site. That’s a touch of class, or even design genius.

The lack of a garden isn’t going to bother a lot of viewers, who’ll favour the big central courtyard and two raised terraces as a place to allow for outdoor entertainment and play, as well as planting. While some may initially see it as a lad’s pad, a loft design landed down in the suburbs, or a trading down option for empty nesters (and it is all of these), it is also an eminently suitable family home.

It has the look of a place that will age gracefully, and won’t take much maintenance, but its low-maintenance credentials don’t come at the cost of being boring. All down to quality materials and build quality.

It has quite extensive Iroko teak sections, such as the protruding window bays and panelled box overhangs: these serve to “grab” extra space just above the site’s footprint, and also create several beguiling window seats, finished here with leather squabs and plump cushions.

Its designer/builder/owner reckons there’s now quite a widespread appetite for contemporary design (thanks to programmes like Grand Designs, and a plethora of building magazines) and a slow response to that demand in the Irish housing market.

He didn’t stint here on any front, and so this build has a mix of highly insulated cavity walls, some internal walls are curved and pristinely plastered (he used a spray-on final render coat), some timber frame construction at the upper most levels, some underfloor heating, there’s a concrete Ducon slab between main floor levels for sound reduction and heat retention, and low-sloped roof pitches with a synthetic finish which apes the look of more expensive zinc, and has a long-life guarantee.

In other words, he mixed and mingled materials and products to suit his sense of vision and what was right for this house, rather than slavishly following one particular path. And, he clearly didn’t do it on a tight budget, aimed at a quick sale turn around and a fast buck.

Layout sees four bedrooms at the lower level, one with en suite and lots of storage space, this sleeping level is book-ended by spiral staircases, and overhead there’s a big open and inviting kitchen/dining room mid-ship, with a 20’ by 15’ family room at one end, and another even larger 32’ by 14’ reception room more elevated to the south end, and each opens to paved terraces.

All the requisites such as guest loo, utility, secure garage parking and storage are here, but in a freshly-conceived package, not so radical to put anyone off, and clever enough to encourage copycat rip-offs.... sorry, homage replicas.

Finishes include cut limestone which makes a real feature of window opes, some of the more overlooked windows have been given a pearl or sandblast-like finish for privacy, the entire outside walls are in Donegal quartz, and the courtyard is surfaced in Indian sandstone.

Internally, there’s porcelain tiling, good carpets, low voltage recessed lighting, good bathrooms (three in all) and powerful showers. The kitchen is in wenge, with quality units and appliances, rich walnut is used in the broad spiral staircase treads (there are two staircases), and artistic wrought iron work features inside and out, in the staircase and terrace handrails, done bespoke by Malcolm McCullagh in Carrigaline. Furniture is by IH&G, and the exemplary Iroko teak windows and doors, including a smart internal sliding door, are by Ed Cotter of Classic Joinery in Lower Friars Walk, Ballyphehane in Cork. Exposed joinery has been given coats of a long-lasting Sikkens pine-coloured varnish, and the overall feel is of a caring, thoughtful hand behind every touch and room.

Estate agent Lucy Wolfe had the Courtyard’s site with full planning for this build for sale three years ago, when a penthouse apartment at Harty’s Quay in Rochestown made a staggering €1.3 million.

Viewers mustn’t have got the picture at the time when presented with the plans. Now, the vision has been delivered, and it is a walk-in job. €1.6 million? The new crop of forthcoming penthouse apartments in Cork, at Eldon off Maryborough Hill and the Elysian, will come on at this sort of sum, give or take.

The Courtyard stands its own ground, on the Rochestown Road, among the very best of company.