House design guide
What Wicklow wants your home to look like
Wicklow County Council wants new rural houses to leave as small a trace on the landscape as possible. Homeowners should build simple, narrow-plan houses tucked into existing field boundaries rather than standing out on open hillsides or breaking the skyline. Design choices must respect the rural context by favoring traditional materials like painted off-white plaster, dark slate roofs, and natural native boundary hedges.
Accepted house types & forms
What they want to see
Encouraged by the guide
Tucking houses into existing boundaries(Page 10)
Position the house close to and integrated with existing field boundaries or tree cover rather than placing it isolated in the middle of open fields.
Passive solar design(Page 10)
Orient the main living areas within 15 degrees of south to maximize solar gain and daylight, which can reduce heating costs by up to 30%.
Stepped floor levels on slopes(Page 11)
On sloping sites, build into the slope and use stepped floor levels or split-level designs to reflect contours and minimize the need for massive excavation.
Traditional wall finishes(Page 24)
Finish external walls with painted white or off-white render, which is the traditional normal finish required for rural houses in Wicklow.
Sod-and-stone bank boundaries(Page 28)
Maintain existing hedges and trees. Reinstating traditional sod-and-stone banks and dense native hedges is normally required for planning permission.
Subservient extensions(Page 32)
Design extensions so they look clearly secondary and subservient to the main house rather than looking like a new house attached to an old one.
What gets refused
Discouraged by the guide
Breaking the skyline(Page 10)
Do not position houses above a ridgeline or where they break the skyline or appear highly dominant in the landscape.
Ribbon development(Page 7)
Avoid creating or contributing to ribbon development, which is defined as five or more houses existing on any one side of a continuous 250-meter road frontage.
Deep plan layouts(Page 18)
Avoid houses that are two rooms deep with a central corridor, as this restricts natural light and forces the house to have an excessively large, dominant roof.
Grandiose site entrances(Page 27)
Do not build over-elaborate suburban entrances with high wing walls, ornamental pillars, precast walling, or highly decorative gates.
Coloured pebble/chip dashing(Page 24)
Coloured pebble-dashing or chip-dashing is strictly not permitted for external wall finishes.
Excessive or large outbuildings(Page 30)
Do not build oversized outbuildings. Two-storey garages or garages exceeding 40 square meters will normally not be permitted.
Converting ruinous structures(Page 34)
Do not attempt to convert ruinous buildings. To be eligible for conversion, the original walls of the building must be substantially intact.
Materials & finishes
- Painted white or off-white render for external walls (Page 24)
- Dark-coloured roof tiles or slates, specifically blue/black or dark brown (Page 22)
- Timber, metal, or stone used minimally and at an appropriate scale as feature elements (Page 24)
- Timber external doors with painted finishes (Page 23)
- Prohibited: Coloured chip or pebble dashing (Page 24)
- Prohibited: Ornate fascias, patterned metalwork, reconstituted stone cladding, or pre-cast features (Page 24)
- Prohibited: Brick finishes in typical rural locations unless highly screened (Page 24)
Roofs & form
- Roof pitch should generally be between 35 and 55 degrees (Page 20)
- Low eaves with minimized or mitigated overhangs to prevent the roof from dominating the structure (Page 20, 22)
- Narrow plan format is highly recommended to keep the roof-to-wall ratio balanced (Page 18, 19)
- Simple gable roofs, valley roofs, doubled and slipped roofs, or narrow plan hipped roofs are acceptable (Page 20)
- Dormer roofs must be designed as 1.5-storey structures with windows extending vertically out of the main wall, or flush-fitting rooflights (Page 22)
- Avoid flat roofs unless carefully designed as part of a high-quality contemporary design (Page 21, 33)
Siting & landscape
- Avoid prominent, exposed, or elevated sites to reduce visual impact in the wider landscape (Page 6)
- Clustering with existing farmsteads or dwellings in courtyard layouts is favored over scattered layouts (Page 12)
- Finished floor levels on sloping sites should not be more than 0.15m above the existing ground level at the front of the house (Page 11)
- Preserve existing mature field boundaries, hedges, and trees wherever possible (Page 28)
- Landscaping schemes must use native species (such as whitethorn, holly, oak, and silver birch) and should be prepared by a qualified professional (Page 29)
- Driveways and large parking areas should be offset from the house to protect front boundaries and avoid large hard-paved surfaces at the front (Page 27)