Wonder Walls: The Tralee home that mixes the old and the new

Irish Examiner Deputy Property Editor Catherine Shanahan is impressed with the design of Walled Garden House in Tralee

Fri, 21 Apr, 2023 - 15:50

Catherine Shanahan

In some respects architecture is a bit like theatre — just as set design roots the drama in a certain era, architects strive to design buildings that keep faith with the history of a site.

Kerryman Steve Burke pulled this off with aplomb in the home he designed for his parents, east of Tralee town. Instead of demolishing the ruins of multiple old stone sheds and outhouses on the site his father had bought, he focused on giving them pride of place in a stunning new creation that is profoundly at ease with its surroundings.

Walled Garden House is sharp and crisp modern interpretation of a traditional agricultural shed.

It’s hard to know who the star of the show is when you look at the finished product. Is it the house — a prodigiously sharp and crisp modern interpretation of a traditional agricultural shed — or is it the old stone walls that bring the drama? You’d have to think that you couldn’t have one without the other. What makes Walled House Garden such a knockout is the masterful blend of modern and historical. The house doesn’t just slot into its surroundings, it complements them.

While some might have set about clearing the site with gusto, Steve, who works with Coady Architects in Dublin (he’s currently working on modular housing for Ukrainian refugees with Sisk), says he likes to work with, rather than against the surroundings.

Architect Steve Burke designed the Walled Garden House for his parents. Pictures: Janice O'Connell, f22

“I wanted the house to be sympathetic to what was already there,” he says.

“It was a rural setting with lovely stone walls, so there was a lot to work with,” he adds.

The rural setting informed his house design and he drew on the ruins to interpret what used to be there, which included typical agricultural sheds.

“I thought about how to elevate those agricultural details to a high-end house and how to reinterpret them as a way of living,” Steve says.

The upshot is the truly unique Walled Garden House, which not only respects the history of the site and the lives that were lived there, but delivers fully on the task of creating a wonderful home for his parents, Michael and Catherine Burke, now, and into the future.

The old stone walls bring the drama to the modern design of Walled Garden House.

It was Michael who chose the one-acre site and he’d had his eye on it for years, ever since local developer Alan Boyle had bought land in the area more than 20 years ago. A couple of sites were developed or sold off, but the one Michael wanted was out of reach financially. Then a couple of investments came good and he made an offer. A deal was reached.

When he showed the site to Catherine, she was smitten.

“We had plans by then to extend our own home, but by the time we would have extended and repurposed it, you could be talking about spending €200,000,” Michael says, and even at that, the house would not have been future-proofed for whatever challenges ageing might throw up.

SO, they bought the site, put in their planning application in 2020 and building got underway in May 2021, based on their son’s design.

“We have very different tastes and I would say that I said ‘no’ to about 95% of what they asked for,” Steve laughs.

His mother’s chief request, no pressure, was that she would end up with a “wow” house, with a big kitchen, a big utility and a hotel-standard bedroom. It’s fair to say that expectations were not just met, but transcended.

The architect drew on the ruins to interpret what used to be there, which included typical agricultural sheds.

Michael says it was Steve’s 3D model that sold it to them.

“His first concept was good, the second was better but the 3D model really sold it. I don’t think we changed anything. We basically followed his plans to a T.” Steve says the defining feature of the 2,700sq ft Walled Garden House “has in fact nothing to do with the house itself but with what surrounds it”.

The old ruins were restored “with a considerate touch to retain the history of the site and form the backdrop of the new building...whose purpose was to celebrate these stone structures”.

Going back through time, to the 19th century, there was a big manor house on the site, owned by the Blennerhassett family, of noble English and Anglo-Irish descent. The old ruins that populate the site, whose legacy has now been preserved, include what’s left of former workers’ homes and of stables and an old coach house.

Steve explains that the L-shaped house design is a mirror “L” shape of the existing stone ruins, which between them create a sheltered walled garden (hence the house name), that slots in between the old and new.

The house design itself is in two distinct “A”-framed structures, one of which is two-storey, where the upper floor steps out from the lower floor to create a covered external entrance walkway. The other is a simpler single-storey. These two are connected with a flat-roofed single-storey element that Steve says “gives the two distinct structures space to stand independent of one another and allow light to penetrate deep into the walled garden”.

Walled Garden House, Tralee. Photographer Janice O'Connell

The building’s materials, he says, “are a celebration of a rural vernacular craft and tactility”. Stone, corrugated metal and tyrolean plaster sit harmoniously together. The stone cladding used on the lower section of the new building is reclaimed from the fallen stone walls on site. Atop the stone cladding, a 900mm high tactile Tyrolean plaster band runs around the entire house, tying the differing volumes and materials together. Black corrugated metal clads the upper storey of the two-storey structure and the roofs of both buildings. Steve says its “dark reflective surfaces recede visually in deference to the surroundings”.

The rural setting informed the house design.

So far so very good. But given the house size (very large), what about energy costs? The good news is Steve not only has an MA in Architecture, he also qualified as a certified passive house designer in 2021. And while his parents’ new home has a “traditional vernacular skin” it’s built with very modern methods of construction (MMC) “to the highest sustainable specification”.

“It is super insulated,” says Steve, adding that “it has triple-glazed windows, a mechanical heat recovery system, an external air-source heat pump, it is extremely airtight and has roof-mounted PV panels”. The proof of the pudding is that the house achieved an Irish building energy rating (BER) of A1, the highest possible grade.

The homeowners' chief request was to have a 'wow' house.

Top marks then for energy efficiency and wow factor. But what about future-proofing? “The house is designed so that Mom and Dad can age in it and never have to amend it in any way,” says Steve. “So you can see their master bedroom is downstairs and the shower, WCs, circulation spaces and doors are all a little more generous than would be typical, in case either of them has any mobility concerns in the future.

“The kitchen counter is even slightly lower than typical so that it is future-proofed to be wheelchair-accessible by taking a cupboard or two out below the counter.” His parents are blown away by the house and find it hard to decide what their favourite bit is. As they love entertaining, the spectacular courtyard will come into its own when the summer arrives. As they only moved in last October, they haven’t had a chance to test it out in the summer months.

“I’m really looking forward to that, to having outdoor gatherings,” Michael says. An architectural technician himself, he’s justifiably very proud of his son. “I’d been designing for years but, until now, I’d never had anyone design for me,” he says.

SOURCEBOOK

Architect: Steve Burke

Interior design: Steve Burke

Structural engineer: Malachy Walsh & Partners

Main contractor: Jerry Fitzmaurice Developments

Joinery subcontractor: MMS Reg Carpenters Ltd (Mark Corkery)

Windows and doors subcontractor: Nordan

Metal frame subcontractor: MFC