Design guide · Kilkenny County Council
County Kilkenny Rural Design Guide
The council's guidance on siting and designing a house in the countryside.
Kilkenny County Council · 95 pages
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- Large Country House in Landed Estate Tower House Mills ■ Robust ■ Imposing ■ Isolated within extensive demesne landscape ■ Setting of substantial stands of deciduous trees and parkland ■ Formal and symmetrical ■ An architectural statement in the Classical or Gothic style ■ Defensive ■ Robust ■ ■ ■ Verticality Robust Asymmetrical ■ ■ Simple Strong regular pattern of small openings in expanse of wall ■ ■ ■ Hipped roofs Very small openings in large expanses of wall Local rubble stone (this was very likely rendered when inhabited but erosion of this outer coating over a long period of time has lead to a presence of exposed rubble stone in the landscape that can reasonably be deemed to be part of the county’s rural regional identity ■ ■ Lime rendered or exposed local rubble stone Although not a domestic building the number, size and sheer presence of these rubble stone buildings in the landscape does (along with the tower houses) contribute to the county’s rural identity and reinforce the characteristic of rubble stone as a walling material. There is evidence that some of these stone built mills were fnished in lime render
- Small Country House or Glebe Storey, - bay hipped roof ■ Simple ■ Formal ■ Symmetrical ■ Classical ■ Modest ■ Unfussy ■ Elegant ■ Hipped roof ■ Ridge height low relative to width of front façade ■ Ashlar fnish on lime render or ashlar local stone ■ Setting of signifcant stands of mature deciduous (and sometimes coniferous) trees bay x storey farmhouse (extended from original three bay) ■ Simplicity ■ Unifed, restricted palette of materials and colour ■ House fronts onto small garden fronting County Road ■ Vehicular access runs past gable of house to rear yard ■ Painted rough cast render ■ Contrasting colour on raised smooth plaster trims to windows and doors bay x storey farmhouse with single storey addition in line with main house ■ Simple in form and detail ■ Small scale ■ Gable faces County Road ■ House lies low relative to road level ■ High robust local stone rubble boundary wall to rear ■ Front of house fronts onto small garden ■ Boundary to road side of garden generally follows alignment of road
- Single storey thatched cottage clachans ■ Organic ■ Small scale units ■ Simple form ■ Narrow gable width ■ Thatch ■ More roof than wall ■ Unit closest to road presents gable to the road ■ Grouped to enclose yard that fronts onto road ■ Colourful painted rough cast lime render ■ Contrasting brightly coloured painted timber lintols and smooth plaster door/window surrounds Rural crossroads (typical house and shop/Post Offce grouping) ■ Linear, two storey x bay double pitched (often mixed residential/retail uses) ■ Landmark at junction on major County Road ■ House gables defne road edge on minor roads ■ Rear yard/parking accessed from minor County Roads ■ Inclosing walls to yard / parking areas at rear defne edges of road junction ■ Building frontages slightly set back from road line ■ Road boundary: low metal railing above low rubble or rendered wall ■ Pebble dash panels between raised smooth plaster trims, painted, to doors/windows/below eaves Typical farm sheds ■ Simple ■ Usually long and low in the landscape ■ Lightweight ■ Shallow barrel vaulted roof shape with or without ■ a low pitch lean-to along one or both of the long sides ■ Steel frame structure (often visible) ■ Roof and wall covering: profled metal ■ Typical colours: light grey (due to galvanised coating), red, green
- local traditional elements and materials “There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man’s lawful prey” John Ruskin A range of materials, details and fnishes found throughout County Kilkenny have established a distinct colour palette and texture that is an essential component of the design language, character, and signature of the county. Locally Distinctive Materials The range of materials found most commonly in Co Kilkenny’s traditional rural buildings (generally up to the mid 0th century) combine to give the county its own unique rural identity and signature character. These materials were invariably natural, such as local rubble or ashlar stone, thatch, and lime render with or without earth pigmented limewash made from local limestone burned in local lime kilns. Slates came from quarries in the locality, or no further afeld than Killaloe, Valentia or Wales. In short they were a response to what was available relatively close by, and also to the demands of climate and the need to protect the external materials and the occupants of houses from the worst effects of driving rain. For instance rubble stone barns housing animals may well have been left unfnished (or at most given a few coats of limewash) but buildings for living or working in such as tower houses, farmhouses and mills were often lime rendered and limewashed giving them an extra line of defence against driving rain and dampness. Doors and windows were always timber, usually painted. Doors were simply sheeted or where funds permitted the architecture became more refned. Framed and panelled doors, fanlights, and sash windows with fne mouldings and astragals were manufactured. During the early decades of the 0th century the arrival of cement as a new ingredient in mortar and render mixes led to widespread use of ashlar fnish or wet dash sand: cement renders. Dry or pebble dash on a sand:cement base was a further development often in conjunction with painted rendered window and door surrounds. As long as the pebble mix in dry dash has affnity with the colour of Co Kilkenny local stone this fnish has its place in the rural materials palette. Rainwater goods were traditionally painted cast iron while gates were invariably fnely crafted painted, wrought iron made in local forges. Profled galvanised steel (known to most of us as corrugated iron) was so frequently used on farm outbuildings that its distinctive presence gives it a worthy place among the Co Kilkenny signature palette of rural materials.
- Unlike parts of Co Antrim, for instance, where there is a very strong tradition of rural brick buildings this material appears to have been rare in the Co Kilkenny countryside. If it was used at all it was a natural red clay brick, used sparingly to form chimneys or the window and door reveals in rubble wall construction. Often it was never intended to be seen and would have been covered with lime render. In recent years a lot of other newer materials (such as concrete roof tiles, fbrous cement slates and PVCu for windows, doors, fascias, barges, and rainwater goods) are being used in the construction of rural houses. Many of these are poor imitations of the original stone, slate or painted timber and bear little relation to the traditional palette of materials from the county or indeed the wider island. These are inclined to weather badly, look incongruous and are beginning to erode County Kilkenny’s distinctive rural character. Although cost is often cited as the reason for using these materials there are usually other alternatives of similar cost that are within the character of the County’s signature materials and colour range. For instance it remains a common misconception, that wooden window frames are troublesome to maintain and that PVC-u windows are durable, maintenance free and value-for-money. They aren’t. High specifcation painted timber windows and doors, well maintained can have a lifespan of 00 years or more. Left to fend for themselves current generation PVC-u frames and doors will begin to degrade and discolour after only 0 years. Unless they are cleaned every six months dirt becomes embedded in the material. They do not weather attractively and prolonged exposure to ultra-violet light from the sun ‘chalks’ the surface making it grainy and dirt retentive. Pollution and sunshine eventually combine to yellow the surface and attack the structure making the frames increasingly brittle and prone to cracking. Ref: Framing the View – Window Frames for a Sustainable Future by Lydia Wilson. Visually the elements of a house in the countryside that dominate most are the roof, house walls and also site boundary walls. It stands to reason that the materials selectedfor these dominant elements will have the biggest impact on overall character but the materials and details chosen for smaller elements such as rainwater goods, windows,doors, fascias and barge boards, cills etc all play their part in either reinforcing or diluting the local distinctive character. Availability of Traditional materials and skills Although some of the traditional materials are no longer in common usage (such as lime putty) many others still are. The skills to use them properly can usually be found within a reasonable geographical spread. One of the great pluses of traditional materials over their modern substitutes is that they are invariably natural. This has two big advantages apart from helping to ensure that a new building is in keeping with the identifed material and colour palette that is a critical ingredient in forming Co Kilkenny’s regional identity: (a) Natural materials (such as stone, slate and timber) are much more sustainable because they need less energy to manufacture them than man-made materials. Materials that are naturally occurring within Co Kilkenny itself (such as local stone) score even higher because their delivery requires much less fuel in transportation and this also saves energy. (b) Natural materials have the great advantage of weathering very well. In fact they can often look even better as they age when they take on a ‘patina’ that mellows and softens their appearance - another factor that helps new houses to blend into the countryside.
- preferred materials These include: Roofs ■ Natural slate ■ (Note: there are no working slate quarries in Ireland today so slate has to be imported from Wales and some European countries. As long as the colour of these slates does not depart from that used traditionally in Co Kilkenny (Bangor Blues or dark grey/black) these are acceptable. ■ Profled steel ■ Standing seam metals such as zinc or lead ■ Thatch ■ Durable timber shingles Walls ■ Ashlar fnish local stone (Kilkenny limestone or granite) ■ Natural rubble local stone(ditto) ■ Ashlar fnish sand:cement render, unpainted or painted ■ Rough cast sand:cement render, unpainted or painted ■ Pebble dash on sand:cement render using local stone pebble mix ■ Self fnished, self- coloured modern renders ■ Traditional lime renders and limewashes ■ Glass ■ Painted timber ■ Unpainted durable timber ■ Some roof materials can be acceptable on walls – slate, wood shingles, or sheet metal such as zinc or lead ■ Concrete (well detailed), with various fnishes -including exposed local stone aggregate can, in certain situations, be acceptable Rainwater Goods ■ Cast iron, painted ■ Cast aluminium (polyester powder coated or left uncoated) Fascias, barge boards etc ■ Painted timber ■ Untreated durable timber Windows and Doors ■ Painted timber ■ Untreated durable timber ■ Glass Cills ■ Stone ■ Concrete ■ Pressed metal (polyester powder coated) Gates ■ Painted or unpainted galvanised steel ■ Stainless steel ■ Cast iron Gateposts ■ Ashlar fnish local stone (Kilkenny limestone or granite) ■ Natural rubble local stone ■ Ashlar fnish sand:cement render, unpainted or painted ■ Rough cast sand:cement render, unpainted or painted ■ Pebble dash on sand:cement render using local stone pebble mix ■ Self fnished, self- coloured modern renders ■ Traditional lime renders and limewashes ■ Concrete (well detailed), with various fnishes - including exposed local stone aggregate can, in certain situations, be acceptable Boundaries ■ Native species hedging with or without rubble stone or earth banks ■ Random rubble local stone Gardens ■ Retain native trees and shrubs where possible 6
- preferred colours These include: Roofs ■ Dark grey ■ Light grey (relevant only when metal is being considered) ■ The brighter red and green colours of the metal on farm shed roofs can be traditionally appropriate but are probably best kept to small areas and need to be very skilfully handled Rainwater goods ■ When the roof colour is a dark grey the guttering (and sometimes downpipes too) often look best when they are a similar dark colour – dark grey is particularly appropriate. This colour shows up less dirt too! Note that the colour scheme for each project must be considered on its own merit since certain wall materials (such as timber) may call for a lighter colour Walls ■ Grey (local stone, render) is a prevalent colour and blends very well into the countryside ■ Traditional paint colours tend to be quite subtle (white, soft buttermilk, cream, beige, fawn etc) although there is a pattern of contrasting brighter colours on window and door surrounds. Avoid shades of yellow and pink as main wall colours. 7 •■ It should be noted that when very large houses are painted white they do not blend in well so although this is a traditional colour it must be used with care Windows •■ Traditionally these were often white. However the frames of modern windows are often much thicker than old sash windows - when these are white they can be overly obvious from a distance •■ Consider using dark grey paint colours or untreated durable timber that will weather to a silvery grey for window frames Doors ■ A wide range of contrasting colours were used These lists are by no means defnitive and there may be other materials that could be deemed acceptable in certain situations. Innovative design solutions may lead architects to propose uncommonly used or even newly invented materials. Each case must be assessed on its own merit but the acid test will be “Does this design and its proposed materials draw on and reinforce the palette of materials and colour range identifed as locally distinctive in rural County Kilkenny?”
- section i would like a house that will blend in…
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- . your needs- defning a brief If you would like to have a handsome house that is well designed you, as the client, have important decisions to make to ensure that this is what you get. In order to arrive at a well designed house two ingredients are essential: a good client and a good designer. In the commissioning of any new house the client plays a crucially important role. As the client it is your task to defne and approve a brief that will tell the designer what you want. A good brief will help ensure that your needs for living are met as far as possible. It will be a good one if, in addition to a basic list of rooms, it also includes something about the kind of person or family you are and the way you like to live. What aspects of your personality and lifestyle could be supported and facilitated in the design of your home? For example: are you very musical and, if so, do you need somewhere quiet to practice that doesn’t disturb the rest of the family? Your initial brief is unlikely to provide all, or even any, of the answers, but if it refects your thoughts in terms of what you need and want from your house and site it will help you to ask the right questions of your architect or designer and you will have made a good start. So a good brief will be initiated by you, and developed with the guidance and expertise of your architect or designer. If the right questions are not posed at the outset and are not answered well by your architect as he or she develops a design for your house then it is likely that the end result will fall some way short of your requirements and the potential of your site. You can commission a home that suits you and your personality, not merely an adequate number and arrangement of spaces. It is best if you have some ideas about what you need from your new home before you appoint your designer. Ideally, it is at this point that you, in collaboration with your designer, go ‘shopping’ for your site. However the reality of landownership and market forces often means that your choice of site is either limited, or pre-determined. In these cases, the site should be considered alongside, and inform, all other aspects of your brief. Are there particular natural features within the site that you wish to incorporate or retain? Is there a particularly good view? How can the house and 0 the rooms within it be orientated to take advantage of this, and still sit well in the landscape without losing the benefts of free energy from the sun? Are there mature boundaries (trees and/or hedges) that could be retained to help the house blend in and also increase privacy? Once you have appointed your designer you can develop your ideas together, but the fnal decisions rest with you – the client.
Source Kilkenny County Council: County Kilkenny 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.