Design guide · Cork County Council
Cork Rural Design Guide
The council's guidance on siting and designing a house in the countryside.
Cork County Council · 128 pages
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- PLANNING GUIDANCE AND STANDARDS SERIES number 1 DECEMBER 2003 AUTHORS COLIN BUCHANAN AND PARTNERS LTD. and MIKE SHANAHAN + ASSOCIATES, ARCHITECTS PLANNING DEPARTMENT ARCHITECTS DEPARTMENT Building a New House in the Countryside CORK COUNTY COUNCIL CORK RCORK RURAL DESIGN GUIDEURAL DESIGN GUIDE:
- First Published by Cork County Council 2003 Copyrights © 2003, 2004, 2006, 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form (including by storage in any retrieval system), transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, or adapted without the prior written permission of the authors and publishers. Colin Buchanan and Partners Ltd Mike Shanahan + Associates, Architects Cork County Council PLANNING STANDARDS AND GUIDANCE SERIES, No.1: Cork Rural Design Guide. Building a New House in the Countryside ISBN No. 0 9525 8694 0 TITLE: REPRINTED DECEMBER 2003 WITH CORRECTIONS FEBRUARY 2004 AND UPDATED JULY 2010 TECHNICAL INFORMATION VERSION:
- 1 cork rural design guide: building a new house in the countrysidePublished by Cork County Council 2003 Reprinted December 2003 with Corrections February 2004 and Updated July 2010 A joint production of the Cork County Architect and the Planning Policy Unit. Cork County Council would be pleased to receive any comments on the contents and utility of the guide, and especially any suggestions as to how it could be improved. Any comments should be sent to: Planning Policy Unit, Floor 13 County Hall Cork ISBN 0 9525 86940 by Colin Buchanan and Partners Ltd and Mike Shanahan + Associates, Architects Copyright in this publication vests in Colin Buchanan and Partners Limited, Mike Shanahan + Associates, Architects, and Cork County Council. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form (including by storage in any retrieval system), transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, or otherwise, or adapted without the prior written permission of the authors and publishers. Copyrights © 2003 Colin Buchanan and Partners Ltd Mike Shanahan + Associates, Architects Cork County Council All sketches and illustrations (unless otherwise noted) by Mike Shanahan and Margaret Walsh, MSA Architects. Graphic Design by Aoife Curran of Colin Buchanan and Partners Ltd. Cover Design by H+A Visual Communication Copyright of the worked example house and illustrations in the document are retained by Mike Shanahan + Associates, Architects Copyright of the deep plan house in Appendix One is retained by Mary Kerrigan Frank Harkin Architects Map images on pages 101 & 106 derived and reproduced from Ordnance Survey Ireland. Copyright permit No. MP008903 Neither the authors (CBP or MSA) nor the publishers (CCC) are responsible for the consequences of the use of advice offered in this document by anyone to whom the document is supplied. Nor are they responsible for any errors, omissions or discrepancies in the information provided.
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- 3 foreword If you are thinking of buying a rural site, involved in selecting or designing a house for a particular site, or just interested in County Cork’s heritage and future development, then this guide is for you. The Guide is intended to make it easier to gain planning permission for those proposing to build, renovate or extend individual houses in rural County Cork. It does this by making clearer what Cork County Council and its planning officers and town architects are seeking, and explaining how choices about the site and the design can make all the difference to the success of a planning application and the completed house. Other aims of the Guide are to • stimulate debate about design; • foster greater consistency in planning decision making; • inform and inspire applicants, builders, designers and planners; • and conserve and enhance the Cork landscape and environment. This Guide does not cover matters such as whether a proposed house is permissible in a particular area of the County, or in what circumstances. For answers on these questions refer to the County (or Town) Development Plan and any Local Area Plan, or contact the Area Planner (or Town Architect). Neither is this Guide intended to specifically address housing development in villages and towns, or development other than houses in rural areas, though there is much in the Guide that may be of assistance to anyone undertaking such development. It is unlikely that everyone would agree with all the examples and suggestions made in the Guide. Hopefully, people will think about and discuss how and whytheir views differ or agree with those in the Guide, and in this way the quality and profile of the debate will be raised. It should be clear to anyone reading and looking at the examples in this Guide that the Council is not seeking to have all houses look the same. Rather, the Guide encourages the imaginative and radical as well as the tried and tested, provided they complement their surroundings. It does this by promoting an understanding of key design principles and the characteristics of Cork heritage and landscape. Good design is not just a matter of taste. There are identifiable techniques and characteristics which will enable someone to make a house more efficient, morepractical, and better related to its surroundings. This Guide provides an outline of these methods and considerations. If it can contribute to today’s rural housesbeing regarded in the future as good places to live, and good things to look at, then it will have been a success.
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- 5 3 7 12 26 52 74 102 103 112 115 117 119 122 foreword introduction part one - careful site selection part two - well considered site layout part three - appropriate house design part four- good construction appendices worked example addressing the deep plan house trees and shrubs bibliography photo & design credits acknowledgements & accreditation contents
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- 7 Few could argue that the countryside of Cork is one of the County’s most valuable assets. It has an economic value, not just for its productive yield in the traditional industries of agriculture, forestry and fishing, but also for its very real value to the modern tourist industry. The latter is increasingly replacing the former as the anchor of the region’s prosperity. A more obvious value lies simply in its scenic beauty, natural diversity and the pleasant, clean environment it provides for all of us to enjoy. Cork County Council commissioned this guide in response to the pace of change now occurring across the County. Cork, just like the rest of Ireland, is currently experiencing an economic boom unlike any other in its history. Prosperity in the housing market has generated increasing pressure on rural parts of the County to absorb and provide for increasing levels of growth. More rural houses have been constructed since the boom of the mid-1990s than ever before in Cork’s postfamine history. As the largest county in Ireland, with a substantial coastline of over 1,100 km, the challenge is to direct and manage this change to ensure that new housing development is in harmony with the outstanding environmental qualities of the County. These qualities include a very distinctive built heritage in rural architecture, a heritage as important to our cultural identity as our language, music and literature. This guide is intended to assist applicants to gain planning permission for new homes by highlighting the key issues that should be addressed at an early stage in the house design process. It is aimed at all of those who are involved in the process of building a new house in rural Cork – the householder, designer, builder and planning officer. It is perhaps regrettable that there has been a general acceptance in recent times of extremely unimaginative standards of domestic ‘rural’ house design across the County. Responsibility for standards rests with each of these parties and in particular with those who prepare and submit plans on the public’s behalf. What is important now is that this joint responsibility is recognised and that all parties make an effort to restore some direction to the evolution of modern domestic rural architecture in the County. Those most qualified to lead this change are the architectural profession, many of whom have generously contributed illustrations of their work to this document. Cork County Council and the authors strongly urge those seeking to build a new house in the countryside to consider the advantages of obtaining qualified architectural advice. The guide does not purport to explain the Development Plan or the Building Regulations, and does not alter the need to have regard to that Plan and to comply with the Building Regulations. 4 6 7 introduction 5
- 8 approach This guide will illustrate an approach to location that reflects the incredibly diverse landscape types that stretch across Ireland’s largest county, from its uplands and agricultural hinterlands in the north to its busy coastline and island communities in the south and west. Advice on siting and layout will be dominated by the age-old considerations of shelter and blending with the landscape, with some practical thoughts on planning for privacy, play space, sewage treatment, accessand respect for one’s neighbours. On the issue of design, the guide will on the one hand illustrate good, exciting, site specific contemporary houses which have been skilfully conceived and executed on appropriate sites (most often involving qualified architects), and on the other highlight the importance of simplicity, restraint, proportion and quality of materials. These are all key characteristics which make the architectural inheritance of Cork rural buildings so distinctive. Elements of Irish rural houses are examined and regional characteristics of the County explored. Some elements, such as windows, chimneys and doors need to be examined in detail, as these are all critical to successful rural design. However, the emphasis is not with the past but with the future. This guide aims to inspire the best in modern, contemporary Irish rural design. A design tradition that is Irish in origin; confident, assertive, artistic and a worthy contribution to Cork’s future built heritage. 8 11 129 10 What does this guide aim to achieve? • Better designed houses for people to live in; • Better located houses to look after the appearance of the countryside; • More thoughtful siting of houses to make them warmer and more comfortable places to live; • Cheaper and more efficient houses to heat in the future through the use of energy saving technologies and renewable sources of energy in accordance with insulation requirements of the Building Regulations; • The promotion of contemporary Irish design and the regional characteristics of Cork architecture; • An easier understanding of how to gain planning permission by making better applications, with well-designed houses on carefully selected sites.
Source Cork County Council: Cork Rural Design Guide · Licence the publisher's termsText read from the publisher’s PDF; tables, maps and drawings do not survive as text, and page numbers are the PDF’s (its first page is 1). Check the original before relying on a passage.