House Country Down, AONB

New family home in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

The clients brief called for a new house the countryside in a traditional style.

The best views are from the front of the house which stretch out across the steep fields through lines of trees to the west. The site is organised to locate ancillary accommodation and parking to the rear where the ground rises steeply, this allows the living spaces o open on to the garden in the evening sun and take full advantage of the long views to the west. The new house nestles in to the slopes of the site and arranged the house around a series of courtyards.

In the proposed design a new gateway has been located close to the western corner of the site. This allows a new driveway to wend through the existing tall Scots pines curving around the gardens arriving to the house from the north. Arrival is into a welcoming entrance courtyard reminiscent of the entrance courtyards to historic country houses across Ireland.

The plan is made up of connected wings with a shallow plan in order to allow natural light to penetrate throughout the house. Each of the wings of the house has light entering from either side allowing the house to remain bright throughout the day.

The main living spaces are all located beside each other, they are visually connected but set within separate well defined rooms of traditional proportions. Their close proximity and visual connections allow the home to be well connected and sociable.

Within the house there are smaller and lower and more intimate spaces and also brighter double height spaces. Throughout the house there are long views out to different parts of the garden giving the house a stern connection to the landscape. Throughout the year there would be a very stroing connection between inside and outside.

In progress