A labour of love that produced spectacular results
A HOUSE to match its setting — that’s this west Cork new-build, just coming up on its first anniversary, and already looking and feeling comfortably at home in its scenic site.
Dramatic in an understated way, with an angled or folded metal roof that looks like it just might have been lifted a bit off its walls and kinked by windy gusts and gales, it’s a retirement home of sorts for an early-retired couple with deep roots to this seaside site.
They’d built an earlier house here, about 30 years ago, and happily raised a family of three. But, when faced with the ‘empty nest’ scenario (and considering renovations of their familiar home), they decided instead to chuck the old nest altogether, in favour of something a bit more striking.
Inspired in some ways by the outline of a dolmen, the roof has been lifted to allow views and light underneath it, and the result is a place looking almost ready to take flight. That winged roof stands at odd angles, raised slightly clear of the walls thanks to separating clearstory windows ringed all the way round.
It serves to ‘lighten’ this fairly sizeable house from the outside, while adding to the multiplicity of eye-engaging views from within. Because the occupants knew every detail of light play and timing of views from their previous 30 years here, every window is painstakingly-sited to catch a ray or a play of light on a feature.
That popped-up, folded metal-deck roof also creates a host of fascinating shadow opportunities and unexpected roof and ceiling angles internally. Pity, and praise, the building crew that did this roof.
It came down to precise engineering calculations to minimise the steel needed to both support the metal-clad roof and to stop it lifting off in a wind, and to keep the supports as light as possible.
Atlantic south westerlies tunnel up the bay, driving waves onto the so-called Thunder Rock near this house, amplifying the sound, and sending salty spray to pepper the glazing. Even lesser winds blow patio furniture and barbecues across the gardens, which is why the main sitting out space is in a sort of internal courtyard, facing the avenue and the nearby hills and walking routes to the south.
Built over an 18-month period, it was quite a project, but the quality of the two-and-a-half acre site, with its scooped-out shingle beach sort of inspired the drive to maximise it all. Fuelling the commitment to go for it was the owners’ passion for architecture and design, and the comfort factor of having a nephew who’s a highly-regarded architect. Happily stepping up to the mark was Patrick O’Toole of PLM Architecture (they have offices in Cork, Kenmare and Dublin) and it was a labour of love for him. “We worked very well and it was a pleasure,” say the happily-ensconced occupants, part of whose design brief was to address “the redemptive qualities of daylight”.
Well, they’re flooded in light, and have a huge delight and pride in what’s been delivered. But, that passion and pride spills over into the setting not just their footprint and toe-hold on it: they absolutely appreciate the location. They’re no blow-ins, and after 30 years in the locale are as taken still by its beauties.
They point towards Hungry Hill on the Beara Peninsula, and say, “We can tell in the morning if there has been a lot of rain in the night, there’ll be a waterfall visible on the mountain”.
They’ll rate the silvery reflections of Whiddy Island’s outline and oil tanks glinting on Bantry Bay’s waters when stilly-calm, relish the churning sea in storms as it throws foam and flotsam on their nook of a shingle beach, and will point out the bay-long view to Castletownbere in one direction, and back east to closer landscape intrigues.
When re-landscaping the grounds in front of the house, the owner directed the digger inch by inch, so the site was re-contoured to mimic the profile of the hills across the bay. A lot of extra work went into compensating for the fact the main water and bay views were to the north, and this meant that the extensive glazing had to be ultra-high performance to compensate.
Materials used in the build are sufficient to bring the house to passive standard in terms of energy demands, but compromises for lifestyle (such as lots of opening and closing of windows) mean it actually hits a B1 BER level, not the high As, but most glazing is triple and walls have 8” of external insulation, finished in a mix of plum-hued Valentia stone, or white STO render.
Glazing is Produkt, from Germany and about as good as it gets technically and in tactile terms of sliding huge glazed door with an easy- glide action, with more windows from Danish firm Velfac, plus C&W from Ballincollig doing the clearstory windows just under the folded roof and origami-like soffits.
“I’ve never had so engaged or prescriptive a client,” notes architect Patrick O’Toole, the ‘P’ in PLM. “He gave me a narrative brief that was like a novella, they knew from the previous house here what they did and didn’t want.”
Despite its size, and the fact the main floor level is higher than the upper floor of the house it replaced, the roof ridge is a deal lower that the previous house, and its surrounds/paths and patios are in Kilkenny/Carlow limestone, spattered with fossil prints; the random stone wall facing is Valentia stone, as are the external sills.
Looking out over gentle hill and shoreline views is the kitchen and home-hearth, with low-key understated units from Maurice Prendiville in Killarney. The units are topped with deep counters in white Corian (the dining table also has a thick Corian top), and units have with large handles in lush walnut designed by Luke Hickson of PLM, who worked closely on the interiors with the woman of the house. So thoughtful are the sight lines that the cooking hob’s ceiling-mounted extractor (from Miele) actually rises and falls electrically, so as to remove it from prime viewing when it isn’t sucking diesel. The vista from the room-wide kitchen window, meanwhile, makes doing the dishes a pleasant distraction.
So, while the special setting has been captivating for the couple’s decades’ stint here, that’s nothing compared to the captivity another party ended up enjoying, who’d tried to buy the site before them It’s recounted locally that one of the infamous Kray twins (of London East End criminal fraternity notoriety) had put a deposit on this very site in the 1960s, “but wasn’t able to proceed as he was detained at Her Majesty Pleasure”.
This is a house with a bit of heft, given that it punches in at about 6,000 sq ft, fitting in five en suite bedrooms, a large angular hall full of architectural edges and geometry, and long sight lines through rooms, windows and wings. And all those views are scene-stealers themselves. In fact, there isn’t a bad aspect in all of the compass points — nor is there a window that you would or could be bored by if plonked down beside it for an hour.
Builders were Murphy Construction from Carrigtwohill, best known for quality housing schemes across the county in east Cork, and helping deliver architect Patrick O’Toole’s vision was another family member, engineer Liam O’Toole, who’d worked with Denis O’Sullivan Associates in Ballincollig. All parties to the build seemed to work well together: the owners had moved half a mile away when they knocked the last house and started rebuilding, cycling back every morning to view progress and see it all come together.
It’s effectively a single-storey build, over a full basement, with the lowermost level home to the master bedroom with His and Hers dressing rooms and bathrooms. There’s virtually a ‘grand entrance’ carpeted and slightly splayed staircase down to this suite, suddenly revealing sea views at the last step only from lawn level through wide windows to the sea. Other parts of this lower level are given over to utilities, plant rooms for the solar heating paraphernalia and huge hot water storage tanks (the oversupply helps pre-warm water to about 15 degrees for the underfloor heating), and there’s a games room and a music recording studio.
The family’s musicality has produced a talented multi-instrumentalist, who has plans to make professional use of the recording studio. In fact, the house’s plan is so cohesive, and thought-through, that the lower ground/basement studio is linked back up to the Kawai baby grand piano in pride of place in the open plan living space.
Finishes are kept to a fairly simple palette, so there’s white render with shadow-gap detailing, especially around the stairwell, and most flooring is American walnut, in varying plank widths. In contrast, the womb-like family/TV room in the house’s core is cosy, with high-level clearstory windows, and its walls are lined with horizontal bands of untreated and unvarnished walnut.
This room shares a glass-screened, double-aspect fireplace with the main living room the other side of the dividing wall, and each side has recessed opes framed in polished walnut for stacking chopped timber, with space in the handy integrated carport for a cord or two of cut wood to dry out over a year or so.
Approached from the public road by a short avenue running beside a well-used tennis court and vegetable garden, this house’s front door signature timber vertical strips is picked up in vertical slats, in cedar, on the entrance gates: just a detail, but considered, linking each welcoming stage.
When parking, occupants have the option of using the drive, by the front door and up the Kilkenny limestone steps, or of making use of the attached, angle-roofed carport with a gently-sloping ramp to the back/utility room door, for easy of access for the less mobile.
One would suspect the owners “will have to be carried back out of the place”, such is their affection for it. They really have left a mark to stand the test of time.
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