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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- . introduction By this stage you have selected your designer and your site, defned your brief and begun to liaise with your designer who is working up some ideas for how the site will be handled. The next stage is to begin to interact with your designer to discuss what they are coming up with and to give feedback to the designer on whether their ideas are beginning to meet your needs. We can all appreciate a beautiful landscape or building, but do we understand what it is that makes something attractive? Over the course of this section we will explore some of the factors that combine to create a successful building: scale, size, form & shape, proportion, massing & volume. However, it is important not to lose sight of the art of design. It is not a science and there are no hard and fast rules or a formula that can be applied to every situation that will result in a successful design solution. Careful consideration of the elements addressed in this chapter are critical in developing an appropriate design response. A ‘Pic ‘n’ Mix’ approach does not work. Ultimately the skill and fair of your designer is critical to achieving a good result. 6 Henchion Reuter Architects
- . scale The Co. Kilkenny Countryside has a rich heritage of great Irish Country Houses. Castletown ‘Cox’ at Piltown immediately springs to mind. It sits magnifcently against a backdrop of stunning mature deciduous trees in a demesne landscape of several hundred acres. Although a very large house, its scale is small when compared to the overall size of its estate boundaries. So when we talk about scale it is clear that this is something that is relative. Something new is happening in the houses being built in the Irish countryside. Refecting the recent wave of affuence some houses are beginning to emulate the magnifcence and As today’s houses grow in size, so too do their roofs, walls, dormer windows, ordinary windows, boundary railings, gates and fountains. The one thing that frequently does not grow to anything like the same extent is the size of the site. Increasingly we are seeing houses whose scale is very large relative to their site and planting. In some areas there are several of these large scale houses in close proximity. The overall effect is a rural landscape dominated by houses, large ones, rather than a predominantly rural landscape with the odd house tucked away. 66 inappropriate scale -size of their th century predecessors, though sadly, rarely (if ever) , matching their large house too big for the sitearchitectural quality.
- scale Large Houses need very large sites and lots of large trees The three houses illustrated below are all exactly the same size but their site area House C varies considerably. The size of the site combined with the number and size of trees planted around the house signifcantly affects how we perceive the scale of the house. House A House B 6
- House A This house appears to be large scale - why? ■ It is squeezed into a site that is much too small; ■ The small site is dominated by the house and car turning/parking areas ■ Several large mature trees would help the problem of the large scale but in time these would cast deep shadows on the house and gardens detracting from both ■ Over elaborate boundary wall/railings/gates also dominate the site House B This house appears to be smaller scale than house A but larger scale than house C - why? ■ Its site area is larger than A and is less dominated by the size of the house. The few trees that have been planted are small so the house will seem larger by comparison. The site is not big enough for the necessary large broadleafed trees without resulting in overshadowing problems. Excessively elaborate gates/walls/railings dominate the site House C This house looks small scale - why? ■ It has a substantially bigger site so seems tiny compared to the overall size of the site. The large site can accommodate large stands of deciduous trees as well as stand-alone broadleaved trees without overshadowing the house or main patio areas. Extensive tree planting along the County Road means the house is completely hidden and has great privacy. ■ Boundaries are visually low key and respect the character of traditional demesne boundaries: rubble stone walls and simple gates/gate posts (if any) ■ Broad leaf deciduous trees are relatively slow growing. In the initial stages newly planted saplings will take some time to establish before they fully screen a very large house when viewed from afar. This would have the case when the original ‘Big Houses’ were built. 6
- scale Very large houses can seem smaller by the use of skilful design to reduce their scale. A Even when they occupy suffciently generous sites reducing their scale can still improve their appearance considerably. Both of these houses have the same foor area so are the same size. But one is a larger scale than the other. Can you guess which? House A is larger scale - Why? ■ The shape of House B has been broken down into smaller simple shapes: - A central bay hipped roof block - Two x bay secondary side blocks ■ The roof on House B is much less dominant overall ■ The ridge height on its central block is much lower than House A and the ridges on the two wings are lower again because these have narrow gables B ■ Each of the three shapes comprising House B has its own simple roof shape although they all form part of the one roof because they are joined by the linking roofs ■ The short links make the three shapes seem separate even though when they are viewed in the round all three still join up and belong together 66
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- . form & shape Throughout Kilkenny the forms and shapes of rural buildings are generally very simple. There are a number of variations throughout the county such as the ‘Glebe’ (illustrated below) or classical cube house with hipped roofs and the barrel-vaulted farm sheds with or without a lean-to covered in corrugated iron. Traditionally one of the main rural house forms is an simple, long and low linear building with a double-pitched roof. This simplicity is further reinforced by the fact that there were very few add-ons such as dormers, roof lights and bay windows which often clutter the appearance of otherwise well proportioned new buildings. 66 There are lessons to be learned from these forms and a number of architects have come up with very contemporary, innovative solutions that take traditional forms and do interesting things with them. Retaining simplicity in the shape and form of new dwellings can signifcantly help with blending new houses into rural settings. At Ahoghill, County Antrim, Alan Jones Architects have produced an excellent example of a well worked contemporary reinterpretation of the traditional single storey house type. It respects the traditions of access, form, scale, simplicity and “plainness”, but is very much of its time and totally eschews pastiche. In addition it throws the ubiquitous approach to conservatories and sunrooms out the proverbial window and completely revitalises them in a very original and fresh way. photos courtesy of Alan Jones Architects
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- . proportion massing and volume Good proportion The Oxford English dictionary defnition of Proportion “is the correct or pleasing relation of things or parts of a thing”. This defnition assumes that proportion is always pleasing or good but is this always the case? When we look at the four houses illustrated on these pages we see that proportions can be awkward and unsightly resulting in an overall effect that is displeasing to the eye. How important is good proportion? Achieving a well proportioned house that is pleasing to the eye is critical in achieving a well designed house that enhances the natural beauty of the countryside. Is good proportion always present in a house? The simple answer is “No!” In fact this quality is more often than not absent in many houses (either entirely or partially). It is quite possible to create a house that is positioned in a good place on the site, respects and refects local character patterns in terms of shape and materials, exercises good manners towards the neighbours, maximises good views and natural light, accommodates septic tank and percolation areas well, refects traditional patterns of discreet rural access laneways etc………. but still fails miserably to achieve beautiful proportions. Equally it is possible to achieve a well proportioned overall shape or composition of shapes but still have badly proportioned dormers, windows, conservatory, chimneys or garage. Does poor proportion matter? There is no question that there are numerous badly proportioned houses across the country whose presence in the landscape detracts from its essential beauty. When there are several of these in close proximity the negative visual impact on an area of countryside is magnifed a hundred fold. County Kilkenny has a very rich architectural heritage and much of that remains intact. So far the county has managed to escape the worst excesses of badly proportioned one-off houses that now dominate in other parts of the country. If a client considers the ongoing architectural legacy and aesthetic beauty of Co Kilkenny to be important this will be refected in what is built. If it is unimportant to the client the reverse will happen. Ultimately the client calls the shots and infuences the outcome. Which kind of client are you? One who creates something that adds to the beauty and architectural heritage of the Co Kilkenny landscape or one who creates something that detracts? How can you achieve good proportion? The person who is charged with the task of delivering aesthetic beauty to your house is your architect or designer. No one else can give you a well proportioned house. This guide does not attempt to give chapter and verse on such elements as a well proportioned overall house shape,roof, window, door etc. because cherry picking well proportioned elements and then assembling them will not automatically result in a well proportioned house. The process is much more subtle and complex than that. This is why the skill and design fair of the architect or designer is crucial to a successful outcome. In addition the most creative architects and designers can often achieve well proportioned houses in ways that are sometimes unpredictable – perhaps completely unforeseen – that still work extremely well. 70
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.