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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- photo with permission of Berenice Maher and Stan McWilliams
- Rural access lanes Houses in the countryside will blend in much more easily when they are sited well away from the County Road and accessed via the traditional single track hedge lined laneway. This is well illustrated by this energy conscious house in the Inishowen countryside, Co Donegal (right) and designed by Paul Leech of Gaia Associates in 0. It blends in so well that it is almost impossible to pick out the house when scanning the wider landscape. Notice the soft grass verges, central grass reservation and gravel fnish to the lane. photo with permission of Frank O’Mahony Architects photo with permission of Berenice Maher and Stan McWilliams
- Visibility Splays All accesses must provide permanent visibility splays to enable emerging drivers using the direct access to have adequate visibility in each direction to see oncoming traffc in enough time to make their manoeuvre safely without infuencing the major road traffc speed. At junctions with National and non-National public roads the vision lines must be in accordance with the guidelines set down by NRA (National Roads Authority). Applications for a new house, or extensions to existing houses (if planning permission is required) must meet these standards for sightlines at the access to the public road. This also applies to accesses that are remote from a proposed new house such as a long rural access lane. Gateways and entrances to lanes that have been in use for decades often have to be adjusted substantially to comply. Sometimes meeting the required standards can prove diffcult within your legal property boundaries. Alterations may be necessary that affect your neighbour’s boundary such as realignment of their boundary hedge or wall, removal of mature trees, or even the removal of a building. Any or all of these may be unacceptable to your neighbour and without their written consent your application will be refused. Check It is recommended that you ask your architect or designer to check the implications of the sightline requirements for a proposed site before you purchase. The standards are clearly set out and apply countrywide. Envelope of Visibility Access Lane A X is known as the set back distance and, in general, for a domestic dwelling with a single vehicle access point this dimension is typically .m for access to a local road or m to a regional road. This can increase to .m where the access point allows two way traffce or at a junction Y refers to the length of the visibility splay. These dimensions can vary considerably. Typically for a domestic dwelling with a single vehicle access point the Y dimension is as follows: Status of Road Xm Ym Regional Road .0 Local Road . 0-0
- The sightlines are measured horizontally, from point A, the set back point, which is centred on the new gateway, xm back from the road verge. The line of the visibility splays is projected in each direction from A, the required y dimension measured along the length of the road verge until it intersects the road verge. The zone hatched in red, known as the Envelope of Visibility, must be free of vegetation or any other features above the driver’s line of vision (measured at .0 and .0m above road level at the set back distance (A) to an object height of between 0.6 and .0m high at the point where the visibility splay intersects with the nearside road edge. Avoid (a) Much of the character of country roads is lost by the removal of native hedges and mature trees along the length of visibility splays at access points to new houses, and the subsequent failure to reinstate these as was. The erection of new boundaries of open timber fencing, blockwork, imitation stone or brick walls (combined with excessively ornate gateposts, gates and/or railings) all substantially undermine the signature rural character of the Co Kilkenny countryside and make it very diffcult for the boundaries of a new house to blend in. (b) Avoid sites where features that cannot be removed easily, if at all, occur within the Envelope of Visibility either on your own or neighbouring property. This sketch illustrates an existing rural laneway at the point where it meets the Public Road. This provides the only vehicular access to a proposed site further along the lane. There is no scope to create a new access point elsewhere along the remainder of the applicant’s road frontage. On the applicants side of the lane the existing hedge and a freestanding electricity pole fall within the ‘Envelope of Visibility’. Although both of these can be repositioned to achieve clear visibility the position of the outbuilding and the fact that it cannot be moved will mean that this planning application will be refused. Visibility Splay Legal boundary between site and neighbour’s property Site under consideration Corner of neighbour’s outbuilding falls within the ‘Envelope of Visibility’. The neighbour refuses to give the applicant permission to demolish and re-erect the outbuilding behind the Applicants Site Boundary visibility splay
- (c) Sometimes it is impossible to achieve sightlines anywhere at all along the road boundary of a proposed site. In an effort to resolve this entrances are moved further along the road beyond the actual property boundaries to a point where sight lines are achievable (often necessitating the additional purchase of a narrow strip of land from a neighbour). The effect of this so-called ‘solution’ is that the entrance gateway and the initial length of the driveway has a very weak visual relationship to the position of the new house and its main site boundaries. The confguration of the driveway is convoluted and tortuous and the traditional siting and access patterns identifed in Section . are virtually impossible to achieve within the average domestic plot size. Such approaches will be discouraged. This site has a relatively short road frontage. It is situated at a bend in the road and it is not possible to achieve the required sightlines for a new access at any point along the site frontage. In order to comply the new entrance gate would have to be moved well beyond the original site boundary. Apart from having to buy more land to do this there is a visually weak relationship between the gateway/ frst length of drive and the otherwise well sited house and its surrounding boundaries. A gateway in this position creates a driveway that is not integrated with the rest of the site. This approach should be avoided. Original Site Boundary Additional land needed to achieve an access to comply with required sightlines
- . garages Another thing to consider in the layout and design of your site is whether you need a garage at all, and if so how can this be accommodated well within the site and integrated with the design of the house itself. There are a number of issues to consider that are illustrated opposite. Traditionally storage for vehicles in rural housing (whether that was a farmhouse or a small country house) was in linear, relatively narrow outbuildings, barns and stables. These were sometimes single storey, sometimes two storey and sometimes a combination of the two. Generally these secondary storage buildings had a visually pleasing relationship to the main house. Without resorting to (or encouraging) pastiche, the clear patterns that these traditional groupings established can guide us today. Key Objectives ■ Position garages on north or east side of the house; ■ Ensure that they have a close relationship to the main house but that they are subservient in terms of their position and shape; ■ Do not allow the garage to block good views from the house; ■ Use garage/secondary storage buildings to help form good enclosure for exterior patio areas, terraces and sunny/sheltered corners of the garden; ■ Organise vehicular access driveways and car turning areas along with the garage so that these do not dominate the approach to the house; ■ Barn/garage buildings often presented narrow gables to the County Road. Where the opportunity arises to do this it helps reinforce the County Kilkenny signature character. ■ The long axis of the barn/garage was often at right angles to the long axis of the house; ■ Barns or stables were often relatively close to the main house (sometimes linked by a screen wall); ■ Position garage doors so that these are not directly in your line of vision as you approach or leave the house 6
- garage subservient & doors kept away from front of house large garage doors dominate approach - this is less satisfactory length variable alternate position 7
- House A In House A the boundary wall and garage dominate the house. The garage presents its longest façade to the road, it is quite far forward of the house and is too far down from the house to have any relationship to it. The external space between the garage and the house is too open and undefned to be used by the occupants for sitting out. There is often a lack of enclosure. A House B In House B although the garage is not overly dominant it is problematic because it is so remote from the main house. The two buildings are completely disconnected visually. This arrangement misses the opportunity to create a pleasing grouping of the two, or to create a sheltered sunny corner for sitting out. Its position so far back from the house means it blocks any good views from rooms at the back of the house. B
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- section i would like a house that is handsome & well designed… 6060
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.