Monastic simplicity, ultra-modern with winning formula

THE medieval town of Graiguenamanagh, county Kilkenny enjoys a scenic location, sheltered in a valley framed by the Blackstairs Mountains and Brandon Hill. The river Barrow flows through the old town, where the main tourist attraction is the 800 year-old Duiske Abbey, originally built as a Cistercian monastery.

While there is a certain monastic simplicity and serenity to Peter Cody’s award-winning home located on the cusp of the town, its architectural cues are most definitely in the present.

Tucked discreetly into its hillside setting, you would be forgiven for passing by and hardly noticing the low, muted grey windowless exterior that faces the roadside. But that understated frontage belies the unique exterior that gently graduates southward into its sloping site, to reveal itself to the rear as a floor-to-ceiling glazed structure that fully engages with its rural setting and capitalises on its views of Brandon Hill.

The living and dining areas of this house literally open onto its south-facing rear garden, but interestingly each of the living spaces, bar the bathroom, enjoys direct access to its own courtyard space.

The concept for this unique home is the brainchild of its owner, architect Peter Cody of Boyd Cody Architects in Dublin. Peter already had strong connections with the area, as his parents are from Kilkenny, the city in which he received his early education.

He was attracted to Graiguenamanagh because he liked the mix of mountain and river landscape. “Originally, I was set to purchase an old house in the area, but the sale fell through”. Perhaps, that was fate as Peter went on to find this 0.75 acre gem of a site on the outskirts of the town.

He feels strongly that a lot of inappropriate building went on in the Irish countryside in recent years. “Many people built very suburban-type houses that were over-scaled and out of place. I felt a strong need to build a home that was sensitive to its surrounding countryside setting.”

Peter wanted to explore a design concept that would adapt to the landscape in a quiet way, which is what drove his decision to make the front of the house blind to the public road.

“I was keen to work with both the inside and outside space and that’s what influenced my decision to create courtyard spaces outside each room.”

Delivering on that objective, the house comprises a modest 100 square metres of living space, or around 1,100 sq ft in all. Built entirely of concrete and glass, the house has five single-storey volumes, increasing internally in width from one to five metres and in height from 2.1 metres to 2.7 metres, and are totally in step with the landscape as it descends down the hillside.

Each of the five volumes is separated, connected only on one side to the spine of the house. They are glazed, floor to ceiling, on two sides and have sliding doors that lead onto gravelled courtyards or — in the case of the living and dining areas — onto the rear courtyard and garden.

The entrance to the house is utterly discreet. A recessed external porch is defined as a reception area by the use of polished concrete flooring — exactly the same finish as you find throughout the house internally. The front door is simple — just sheeted in wood. Even the post box positioned at ground level ensures that everything about this entrance is minimal.

Inside the front door, the first room off the entrance area is a large, modern shower room. To the left of the entrance is the bedroom. Because the house is treated like a single space internally, there isn’t a door into the bedroom or a wall, privacy is achieved through a bespoke wardrobe, clad in grey formica, which was commissioned by Peter to the scale of the simple wooden bed, which he also had made by the same joiner.

To the left is a long galley kitchen that was again commissioned. The units are made from birch ply, clad in grey formica and there’s a stainless-steel work surface. All appliances are built-in, in keeping with the uncluttered feel of the house.

As the ceilings grow in height, to the rear of the property, the rooms that are most used — the living and dining areas — are situated at this end of the house.

The living room has floor-to-ceiling bookshelves against the solid wall, which Peter made himself. The books are well thumbed, as you would expect in a house without a TV.

There’s a cool, light grey upholstered sofa, on chrome tubular legs and a large citrine rug offsets the polished concrete floor. Three vintage tables of Swedish origin complete the furniture in the room. A distinctive ceramic bowl (each descending in size) is placed on each of the tables.

Like the dining area, this living space enjoys meditative views of the garden and surrounding countryside.

The focal point within the dining room is a classy set of dining table and chairs. Peter confirms that it is a vintage dining set that dates from the sixties and is by celebrated Danish furniture designer Han Wegner. “I found it in a vintage shop in Dublin some years ago and it fits perfectly in this space.”

Against the solid wall is a long console, which Peter describes as, “a piece of vintage office furniture which I found on eBay”. On top of this piece is a beautifully-carved chess set, which Peter explains was a 21st birthday gift.

The dining area not only opens onto a wonderfully scenic vista, but also onto a cultivated raised lavender bed, approximately the same width as the room. The heavenly scent of lavender wafts into the room and the stillness is punctuated by the sound of a legion of busy bees collecting pollen.

Inside, this is a pared-back house, but every item within its walls is well considered. The funky concrete floors, ground down to reveal the aggregate in the concrete composition and then polished nd sealed, are perfect for a rural setting and also work exceedingly well with the underfloor heating.

“I opted for geothermal heating which runs 24/7, giving the house a pleasant ambient warmth and the systems also delivers hot water on demand which is a real bonus. With a generous site area, there was plenty of space to install a horizontal geo-thermal network into the south-facing garden.

The roof of the building is flat and already boasts a ‘garden’.

“The sedum roof sits on a cushion of fleece, which is laid on top of the asphalt, and it grows away,” notes Peter.

With such a dynamic and original structure, I ask Peter if he had any difficulty getting the design approved by the planning department at Kilkenny County Council? “’No’ is the simple answer. “I found the planners really good to deal with. There was planning already in place for a single storey dwelling on the site and because what I have built is relatively small in scale and is designed to sit unobtrusively in the landscape, there were no issues”.

Outside, the garden is taking shape. While Peter bought the site almost seven years ago, building work didn’t commence until 2008 and the gardening work didn’t begin in earnest until last year.

The planting to the right side of the house stays with the expected rather than the exotic. Soft white mallow, mountain ash, viburnum and hardy holly form a backdrop to clumps of contoneaster horizontalis creeping their berried way onto the gravel path.

In the courtyard spaces, fashionable yet old-fashioned blousy white hydrangeas are planted in outsized zinc flowerpots.

To the rear, past the framed gravel area is a manicured lawn, which in turn is framed by a wild flower meadow, with its bright array of red poppies, piercing blue cornflowers and meadowsweet. Peter admitted that he gave the meadow a little help in achieving its current riot of colour, by adding some wild flower seeds to what was already a good display and range.

One of a handful of Irish houses to be shortlisted for a prestigious World Architectural Award, this contemporary house has received an award from the AAI and got a special mention from the RIAI Awards for buildings and landscape.

Distinctive on so many levels, it’s hardly surprising that the cutting-edge design of this property has garnered awards, but perhaps what is most interesting — given its rural location — is that it achieves this without shouting its architectural credentials to those who view it from the public roadside. The fact that it melds into its site is just one element of the genius of this house — but perhaps is the most important lesson for successful building in the Irish countryside.