Award-winning city residence

CEDAR cladding is all so very the 2000s decade, but it was also big in the 1960s, coincidentally enough when flat roofs and ‘radical’ design innovations were also very much in vogue.

Current or passing architectural trends have re-embraced wood cladding and roofs that veer away from the traditional apex or pitch: if such non-standard, more individual offerings are to your liking well, here’s one that was prepared earlier.

A new market arrival is 23 Dundanion Court, right on Cork city’s attractive Blackrock Road near the village’s many burgeoning ‘foodie’ amenities, a four-bed home with about 1,270 sq ft of distinctive (ie, original,) space. As a possible design theme, its interiors could suit a sort of Continental/Scandinavian look, think G-Plan furniture, Habitat classics or IKEA standards.

Part of a private complex built in the 1960s, and which won a design award for its architect Neil Hegarty, most of the few dozen houses have limited private outdoors space, but also share a communal courtyard garden — a feature again coming back in to vogue.

Previous sales were priced well into the €400,000s in recent

years, thanks to a convenient Blackrock Road address as much as anything else. Now, estate agent Michael O’Donoghue of O’Donoghue Clarke seeks offers around the €375,000 level.

Hard to know which aspect is front or back, it has a glazed entry porch to the road side, hall, a 16’ by 13’ living room, slightly smaller dining room, kitchen with utilities, a small sun room, and overhead are four bedrooms, with one en suite, plus main bathroom.

Heating is via gas, and windows are a mix of single and double glazing, with wood-sheeted ceilings and exposed brick walls.

It needs some upgrading — one or two house here are currently getting a full, loving makeover — but the bones are good, the look can be quite cool, and the location can almost be described as stellar; after all, there’s now an observatory a mile away at the rejuvenated Blackrock Castle.