House design guide
What Carlow wants your home to look like
Carlow County Council wants new rural homes to blend naturally into the landscape and respect local heritage instead of dominating the countryside. House designs should use simple shapes, narrow plans, and high-quality local materials while avoiding suburban styles and prominent, exposed sites. Development must focus on sustainability, working with the existing landscape contours, and preserving natural features like trees and hedgerows.
Accepted house types & forms
What they want to see
Encouraged by the guide
Reusing existing structures(p. 307, p. 327)
Promotes the restoration, adaptation, or extension of existing traditional buildings instead of building completely new ones.
Enclosed and sheltered sites(p. 306, p. 307)
Selecting sites that are naturally enclosed by existing mature trees and hedgerows so the home can 'tuck' into the landscape.
Harmonizing with site topography(p. 308)
Buildings should be positioned along the natural contours of the land, using lower areas of the site to screen the development.
Simple shapes and narrow plans(p. 311, p. 312)
Designing homes with simple, traditional shapes (like narrow plan forms) and a clear hierarchy where the main building remains dominant.
High solid-to-void ratio(p. 313, p. 315, p. 318)
Maintaining a balanced look where there is significantly more solid wall surface than window and door space, focusing on vertical window shapes.
Subservient extensions(p. 325, p. 327)
Extensions should be designed to look clearly secondary and connected to the main house, preferably located at the rear and matching the original building's proportions.
Passive solar design and energy efficiency(p. 308, p. 322, p. 323)
Orienting the home to face south to maximize natural heat and light, aiming for high energy ratings (NZEB standards).
Native landscaping(p. 321)
Planting native Irish trees in groups of three or more, and using mixed native hedgerows and wild meadows instead of large formal lawns.
What gets refused
Discouraged by the guide
Suburban styles(p. 305, p. 306, p. 321)
Avoid suburban-style shapes, formal symmetrical garden layouts, decorative boundary walls, and suburban entrance gates.
Prominent or elevated locations(p. 307, p. 308, p. 309)
Do not build on ridges, hilltops, or highly visible, open, and unsheltered elevated sites that break the skyline.
Ribbon development(p. 306, p. 307)
Avoid planning houses parallel to roads in a linear pattern, which causes a loss of rural character.
Excessive cutting and filling(p. 308, p. 310)
Do not artificially alter the natural levels of the site to carve out flat 'platforms' on slopes, which leaves scarred landscapes.
Deep-plan or boxy homes(p. 311, p. 315, p. 316)
Avoid bulky, deep-plan shapes that lead to excessively large, dominant roofs and dark internal corridors.
Mid-roof dormer windows(p. 316, p. 317)
Avoid busy, prominent mid-roof dormer windows. Instead, use flush rooflights or traditional wall-plate dormers.
External and spindly chimneys(p. 317, p. 318)
Avoid prominent external chimney breasts on outside walls, and tall, spindly chimney placements on the roof plane.
Replica windows(p. 319)
Replica Victorian and Georgian style windows are strictly not acceptable.
Unsympathetic materials and finishes(p. 320)
Do not use dry dash, brick, artificial or reconstituted stone, corner quoins, or bright/garish external colors.
Hard surfaces and suburban driveways(p. 321)
Avoid tarmacadam, concrete, or brick driveways. Avoid non-native single-species trees like Leyland Cypress.
Overly elaborate entrances(p. 321, p. 322)
Elaborate entrance gates with high wing walls, massive pillars, and grand gates are not permitted.
Materials & finishes
- Locally sourced, indigenous materials like stone and timber (p. 320)
- Natural, soft, and neutral paint colors on external walls (p. 320)
- Roof tiles or slates in blue/black or slate grey (p. 316, p. 318)
- Metal sheeting or zinc for roofs in specific circumstances (p. 316)
- Simple sheeted or panelled timber doors (p. 319)
- Self-draining gravel for driveways (p. 321)
Roofs & form
- Simple gabled roof forms with minimal eaves and verge detailing (p. 316)
- Roof slopes generally between 35 and 45 degrees (p. 316)
- Roofs should avoid large overhangs or box verges (p. 316, p. 318)
- A clear visual hierarchy where the main building's roof remains dominant (p. 311)
- Rooflights mounted flush with the roof plane (p. 317)
- Extensions should match the original gable widths, pitch, and eaves height where possible (p. 327)
Siting & landscape
- Homes must blend into the rural landscape by utilising existing field boundaries and hedgerows (p. 306, p. 307)
- Sites carved out of the middle of larger fields should be avoided (p. 306, p. 307)
- Buildings must be sited to exploit natural shelter from prevailing winds and maximize solar gain (p. 308)
- Keep removal of existing mature trees, stone walls, and sod banks to an absolute minimum (p. 321)
- Avoid formal, straight-lined, or symmetrical suburban-style garden layouts (p. 321)
- If roadside boundary setbacks are required for sightlines, they must be rebuilt matching the original material (e.g. hedge for hedge, stone for stone) (p. 321, p. 322)