€1.1m Pavilion-style home in Kinsale is designed for passive living

This home is not too hot, not too cold, but just right

Liamor, Kinsale, Co Cork

Kinsale, Co Cork
€1.1m
Size	174sq m (1,873sq ft) + 25sq m (269sq ft)
Bedrooms	3+1
Bathrooms	3+1
BER	A2

A modern adaptation of Goldilock’s tale could be used to demonstrate the advantages of a passive house. Her cries of “too hot” and “too cold” could be linked to a visit to a conventional home, while a passive house visit would earn the verdict “just right”. Who knows, the re-telling might inspire a whole new generation of passive house enthusiasts - which seems a more favourable outcome than a story that ends with broken chairs, rumpled beds, and three disgruntled bears.

The word ‘passive’ in this context reflects a design philosophy: instead of constantly correcting the indoor climate through active intervention, the house is designed so that comfort comes naturally from its form and materials, and the way in which they interact with the environment.

The owner of Liamor, a passive house in the postcard-perfect setting of Kinsale, left no detail to chance when planning her home. Even though the passive house concept dates back about 35-years (German/Swedish in origin), its adoption in Ireland has been limited. Liamor’s owner had to cast her net as far as Co Roscommon to find a passive house builder.

“Liam Casey of Liden Designs came in May 2022 and the structure was up in 12 weeks. There was a crew of eight, and they did nearly everything, including the carpentry and creating metal cladding from sheets of metal,” the owner says.

The triple-glazed high-performance windows — including lots of floor-to-ceiling picture windows — came from Roscommon too, from Seán Doyle Windows Ltd. Two sets of opposing full-height sliding doors in the open-plan kitchen/ dining room slide open north and south to courtyards, and, at 2.6m, are a good bit taller than the standard height. The sort of lopsided H-shape of Liamor means the courtyards are sheltered, between the central core and two semi-parallel wings.

“The H-shape forms two courtyards, it’s sort of like a pavilion, like something you’d see in Thailand, very open, very clear, you can look straight through [the central core] from front to back.”

It’s an unusual house design, one devised with John Butt, lead architect with Douglas-based BOK Architects and Engineers, whom the owner had worked with on previous projects.

She chose Kinsale for her passive house, because of lifelong ties to the pretty coastal town, where her grandmother was born. “I was up and down there all my life, so it was a natural progression for me, and much better than Cork City,” she says.

She came across the 0.4a, teardrop-shaped site during the pandemic and it was perfect for the house she had in mind. She liked the walkability too — it’s just 90 seconds from the landmark St Multose Church, in Kinsale’s historic centre, close to shops, hospitality, and the gleaming marina.

“It was the last greenfield site in the middle of Kinsale town,” she says, and it was perfect for what she wanted, which was a home very different to anything else in the neighbourhood.

“I wanted it to look like a spaceship landing in a field of barley,” she says.

It’s certainly very different to the usual Kinsale fare. The internal layout is singular too. John Butt based the overall design on the American “Great Room” principle of centralised, maximum living space with ancillary rooms off each corner. There are no hallways or lobbies; all internal doors are disappearing (pocket doors), all bedrooms are of equal size, built on a 4mx4m grid. The owner eschewed standard cupboards and wardrobes and instead the focus was on easy access and visibility.

Bryan O’Rourke of Togher-based Aubie Design did the kitchen.

“He usually only deals with architects, but he tolerated me, because I came with a design and I knew what I wanted,” says the owner.

She didn’t want any over-counter cupboards, she wanted appliances hidden away (they are) and she wanted a downdraft Bora hob — which is integrated into a handsome hand-crafted island unit, made by O’Rourke.

The impression you get from Liamor is that very clever design delivered a house with a sense of simplicity and great visual clarity, without being cold or sterile. It also delivered a home built to exacting passive house principles, reflected in impressively low energy bills — about €50 a month. While the BER is an A2 instead of an A1, (the owner says this is because the hardware she used — air-to-air instead of air-to-water — didn’t fit the rigid BER formula) in fact Liamor “performs way beyond passive standards”.

Advanced indoor climate control by Nilan Ireland offers air-to-air heating, cooling, and ventilation. Constant hot water “at zero cost” is via a separate indoor highly efficient heat pump unit, alongside the solar battery which stores 5.4kW of electricity generated from the south-facing solar roof panels, on a roof sloped at 22 degrees to maximise solar gain. Add in exceptional external insulation — 300m within the external walls, roof, and floor — and it’s easy to appreciate why the internal temperature is consistently comfortable, regardless of season.

Aside from excellent energy credentials, Liamor is an exceptional piece of contemporary architecture, where 4.5m high sloped ceilings add volume, light, and space. Polished concrete floors ensure a modern, seamless finish throughout, while low-maintenance shower areas have a sleek resin finish, that complements the overall minimalist aesthetic.

With the exception of the bathrooms and some kitchen cupboards, none of the furniture is fitted making three-bed Liamor “a super flexible house” the owner says. Add in a fully self-contained one-bed apartment to the rear (with the same BER and open-plan living) and there’s even greater flexibility — for guest accommodation or adult children, or elderly relatives.

Trevor O’Sullivan of Lisney SIR is blown away by the low energy costs: “It’s absolutely running on nothing,” he says, “and when you take that into account, along with the value of a site in the centre of Kinsale town and the quality of the build itself, the buyer is getting great value.”

The guide price for Liamor is €1.1m. Given the premium finishes and Kinsale location, buyers could come from just about anywhere. The buzz around town is that American billionaire James Berwind is currently looking at buying his fifth Kinsale property — Prospect Lodge, for €6.25m — so why not make it half a dozen and add in Liamor?

VERDICT: Will appeal to a broad range of buyers: as a luxury retreat for holidaymakers; as a singular family home, and to those committed to the principle of passive housing with the bonus of a Kinsale location, where water activities, beaches, scenic walks and good dining can all be part of your lifestyle.