Embracing modern timber frame designs in a rural setting
He returned very much to his roots when designing this one-off in Aghada, east Cork in the early 2000s — after all, the client was his sister Jennie, and the site was on the family farm. Over the decade, several more of his fortunate siblings have built on the family land, and what is notable is that each house he’s designed for them is entirely different, down to what the ‘clients’ wanted, and what the specific site suggested.
This is the home of Andrew’s sister, and her husband Alex Stephens who is originally from Essex. Jennie works in the Ordnance Survey Ireland offices, and Alex worked in the nearby Trabolgan Holiday Centre, setting up their adventure activities, and now is activity centre manager at the Ballyhass Lakes complex near Mallow, an amazing reuse of a flooded quarry, yielding kayaking, angling, abseiling, raft building etc. They’d worked on the design with Andrew on and off for a year or so, tossing ideas back and forth, using magazine spreads like the annual magazine Build Your Own House and Home’s collection of one-offs for inspiration, visiting other houses and watching along the road for what they thought worked, and basically keeping aware and honing ideas.
