See how this Kinsale house was transformed inside and out

Architects designed impressive extension to semi-detached residence which also maximises sweeping sea views

Fri, 25 Jun, 2021 - 18:05

Carol O’Callaghan

Location, location, location, goes the old cant when it comes to buying a home, and it says everything about the purchase of a semi-detached council house in the Ardbrack district of Kinsale back in the ’90s.

The buyer, a second-generation Irish-American with Kinsale roots, wanted her children to know her Irish family, so having gotten in there before houses started changing hands at boom-time prices, she made it a family holiday home.

The extended front of this Kinsale house has been achieved with a design sympathetic to its semi-detached neighbour and its environment.

By 2013, however, she decided the time was right for a revamp and to expand the house to accommodate her now-adult children and her grandchildren, and to prepare it as a place to retire to ultimately, calling in Dublin-based architects Antipas Jones to work with her.

Architect Lucy Jones, who also has personal links to Kinsale, says: “I knew the family and I called over for a talk about the project, thinking it might be a redesign of the kitchen, but it turned out the client’s ambitions for the house were huge.”

The extended property at Ardbrack, Kinsale.

What was equally huge and offering scope for all sorts of design imaginings was the back garden, made spectacular by how it slopes all the way down to the sea, just separated from it by a road, and offering unimpeded views of the sea and coast.

“The client had lived so long in the house she knew what she wanted,” Lucy says.

and so began a project which rolled out over a period of five years and saw the house tripling in size overall.

But far from it taking on monstrous proportions at odds with its environment, Lucy and her team handled the ambitious project with design sensitivity and respect for the locality, leaving the front elevation which overlooks the street, crisp, clean and unassuming.

As an approach, it’s something Antipas Jones is adept at.

The cosy parlour to the front of the property.

In other hands, a less considered, more unrestrained approach would have jarred with, if not overwhelmed, its modest semi-detached neighbour. The result is a reminder that not only do good fences make good neighbours, but good design too.

Hidden from sight around the back it’s another world, spectacular and unexpected, including extensions to the side and rear and the construction of an additional floor, dug out of the sloped garden to make a minus-one level, so the house is now three-storey.

“Originally, you’d have come in the front door straight to the foot of the stair, with a door to the left and right,” says Lucy.

“There’s now a front parlour which is more traditional and cosy than the extension at the back for sitting by the fire for a chat when a neighbour calls over.

"To the left front of the house is a guest bathroom and little bedroom. Upstairs is a large bedroom and bathroom for the owner and a bunk room for the grandchildren.”

Back to the ground floor and to the rear of the property is the addition of what Lucy describes as “a big glass box”, accessed through a sliding door. Here we find the kitchen, dining and living space with requisite squishy sofa for when the family ventures across the Atlantic for a visit.

From here, sliding glass doors lead to the middle of three terraces with panoramic views expanding to take in the harbour.

Back indoors a stairway leads down to the new minus-one level and guest accommodation. This just might be where an American influence makes its presence felt.

Those of us who have stayed in American homes are often housed in their basement accommodation which can vary from luxurious, well-lit and warm, accompanied by a feeling of being honoured with your own exclusive space, to the opposite and a sense of having been deposited out of the way in a space scant on light and with a chilly drop in temperature.

Take your pick: Dine indoors on an Irish rainy day, or take it al fresco on the terrace.

But the former situation is the case here, where a lightsome, inviting space has been

designed with a walk-out onto the home’s third terrace which projects into the garden and interacts with the middle terrace by external steps which also link to the garden for ease of access. It’s a well-considered arrangement which Lucy says was inspired by the terraced garden of Bauhaus architect Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe’s Villa Wolf, designed almost 100 years earlier.

A practical bathroom space is finished with a fun hot-air balloon wallpaper behind the vanity unit.

Keen to honour her husband’s ancestry, the owner, with help from interior designer Daphne Daunt, introduced exuberant Indian fabrics and artworks, rounding off citations to the family’s Irish-American-Indian heritage.

Sliding floor to ceiling glass doors give access from the open plan kitchen, dining and living area to the second of three terraces.

Outside, thanks to the work of garden designer Daphne Lowman, the space has a mature feel and a look that changes with the seasons.

It’s a tricky business to maintain a coastal garden and withstand the prevailing winds, but Daphne’s expertise as a plantswoman means an orchard has also been established and successfully grows a variety of fruits.

Meticulous attention to detail is evident both inside and out, with the owner even specifying an outdoor shower. “Because the garden goes down to the sea,” says Lucy, “she didn’t want stuff coming into the house.” Additionally, stonework outlines the lower rear terraces, and metal gates to the front and rear of the house feature a top line of loops referencing traditional Irish farm gates.

Architects Lucy Jones and Christophe Antipas of Antipas Jones. Picture: Shane Lynam.

Back indoors, there is also notable precision, especially in practicalities such as storage which has been delivered with skilled design and exacting cabinetry.

“Storage is a big feature in the house,” says Lucy. “The back passageway in the minus-one floor [below ground floor] has built-in wardrobes where each person in the house has their own dedicated wardrobe for their stuff.”

Upstairs there’s a window seat area which has a hidden work station which emerges from its own cubby for the owner who likes to sew.” Another practical consideration is heating a property of this size whether it’s in winter or on a damp Irish summer day. Heat-pump technology has been installed and also ensures constant and copious amounts of hot water, a must when all three generations of the family are in residence.

As a project overall, it was a bold and inspired undertaking for a client Lucy describes as “courageous”, and one which even prompted a stranger to walk on to the site when it was nearing completion wanting to buy it.