Rural Design Guidelines

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   Westmeath Rural Design Guidelines Learning from traditional farm building clusters: • Clusters developed over time, creating sheltered areas around buildings and within courtyards • They were located generally in places sheltered from wind, exploiting the land-form to create a favourable microclimate Farm cluster developed over centuries of use and change Randomly grouped farm buildings around a traditional farm Roadside farm with courtyard, which generates shelter for the house and screening from the road 17

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   Roadside farm gathers the farm buildings informally in a cluster Learning from classical buildings: • Outbuildings designed as a piece, and shaped into courtyards • More pretension but still modest: beautiful and simple proportions • Georgian houses had deeper plans, often with double roof and/or hipped roof Beautiful, simply proportioned classical house. Agricultural buildings are separately accessed, away from the front garden and main entrance Purpose-designed courtyard buildings away from the house Courtyard off the road with main house and enclosing outbuildings on each side 18

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   Westmeath Rural Design Guidelines Learning from classical farm building clusters: • Integrated designs linked house with outbuildings, whilst separating functions of living and agriculture • Frequently, a formal garden at the front and a working courtyard at the rear or the side • Variation on this is the roadside courtyard, with set back house and wall to road edge. The side outbuildings are serviced from a laneway outside the courtyard • Integrated grouping combined with limited choice and use of materials gave rise to coherence in countryside buildings • These relatively large houses had sufficient space around them to absorb the scale and to create a landscape context Large volumes in a mature landscape The slope facilitates dwelling at upper level and farm buildings at lower level, separating the functions Learning from traditional and classical buildings in the landscape • Landscape was used purposefully; trees, hedges, walls and banks for screening, shelter and subdivision • Location of both traditional and classical buildings was determined with a view to achieving good orientation, shelter and accessibility to the road • Landscape design interventions were effectively the means to achieve control and security for animals and crops, using trees, banks, hedges and walls to improve shelter • Exterior walls created enclosure and shelter in conjunction with buildings • Windows in timber, using 'golden section' proportions with vertical emphasis, (ie in a proportion of about 1:1.6) Farm cluster using trees for shelter 19

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   A basic typology of rural houses in Westmeath 1 Summarised from 'Rural Housing Study' for Westmeath County Council by Orna Hanly Architect Top, cottage is a single storey, three bay building with gable ends. There is one chimney, located just to one side of the door. Exterior is rendered and limewashed. The roof is thatch, sometimes replaced with galvanised sheeting. Traditional Thatched Cottage Centre, 19th century traditional farmhouse cottage with rendered, painted walls and slate roof. Porch is common on the front. Windows are of equal size; often extended to add a bedroom. Traditional Single Storey Farmhouse Cottage Bottom, local authority house in 20th century evoked the estate cottages of the 18th and 19th centuries. First floor has windows on the gables, providing bedrooms in the roof and a model for one-and-a-half storey dwellings of recent times. Local Authority House 20

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   Westmeath Rural Design Guidelines A basic typology of rural houses in Westmeath 2 Top, Classical, (Victorian), estate cottage with bedrooms in the roof space and gabled porch. Gable dormers give light and ventilation to roof bedrooms. Chimneys located at each end Classical (Victorian) Estate Cottage Centre, Classical, (Victorian), 19th century two storey farmhouse with low eaves and bedrooms under sloping ceilings with low-level windows. Chimneys at gable ends and porch, usually added later Classical (Victorian) Two Storey Farmhouse Bottom, Classical-style 19th century farm house; note the 'double' hipped roof with valley which is effective in reducing the height of the roof and the windows, longer than earlier Georgian houses Classical style 19th century Farmhouse 21

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   2.3 Contemporary Buildings In the past fifty years, the countryside has been seen progressively as a more attractive place to live. With the decline in agricultural employment a new generation of rural dwellers, with new dwellings, has grown. The traditional ways of building and classical models have largely been replaced by modern houses, although there is still a respect for local qualities and some of the stylistic characteristics of traditional and classical buildings. The new buildings in the countryside present an opportunity to examine some of the trends, good and not-so-good, in architectural treatment in the County, and to apply the lessons to be learned constructively for the future. General Issues • The floor area of new rural houses progressively increased through the twentieth Century. Growth in size need not mean growth in scale or apparent bulk of the house, but in many cases it has, to the detriment of local character. However, not just the building, but also the size of site may be a determinant of appropriateness - a large house on a small rural site looks out of place • Traditional skills in siting need to be rediscovered to locate buildings sensitively • Design ideas and materials from other countries and continents need to be handled with care • The special, local character of a place deserves better recognition in design today √ This is a sizeable dwelling, with two storeys, using the roof space to minimise height. The siting is well considered, using the existing natural boundaries to define the plot and retaining the existing stone wall. Window proportions recognise traditional window to wall ratio. Dormers and gables allow for good daylighting in the bedrooms. Simple material treatment uses slate roof, rendered walls painted white and timber doors and windows stained. Large trees and a rising site behind help to contain the scale, whereas the same building on another site may appear conspicuous. It is an example of restrained design using familiar architectural language from the nineteenth century. The dark colour of the fascia, soffit and bargeboard blend into the roof colour and guttering. 22

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   Westmeath Rural Design Guidelines √ Three contemporary buildings, (two of which, above, received Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, (RIAI) awards for good design), which show different aspects of contemporary design: Above left, house built on a site with ruined cottage which was retained (see also picture on cover of Part 3) keeps a low-lying profile in an area of uplands landscape, and blends traditional stone with large ares of glass and a zinc roof. The existing landscape around the site is not disturbed. Above right, house built in an exposed location, which uses a skilful mix of traditional details (roof, gables and chimneys) with stone, large areas of glass, balcony, dormer and sun shade details which are modern treatments of these elements, (See also picture of this house in Part 3:3). Left, a substantial roadside house, which is contained in the landscape through choice of a mature tree screen close by and a considerable set-back from the road. New planting, as it matures, will also help to integrate the building into its site 23

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   √ Above, modern interpretation of familiar traditional forms in Westmeath. This setting is in an open landscape. The use of a connected, carefully articulated cluster of building forms gives the building presence in the landscape and breaks down the scale. Garden-type planting is deliberately avoided in this case, in favour of keeping the open field around the building. However, further landscaping may assist in anchoring the building √ Below, modernised cottage retains mature setting and its roadside position, gable to the road. Note the simple form, careful treatment of windows and porch √ Above, successful conversion and extension of a small house, using simple, elegant, treatment of walls, windows and overall building form. Modern, yet timeless √ Below, the house above is at the end of an unfortunate ribbon of housing reaching out from the village; happily, the ribbon is below the horizon. The house shown above is at the far right, well contained in its own landscaping 24

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   Westmeath Rural Design Guidelines Above, the apparent small scale of the house is inescapable, yet its basic form and connection with the garage area generate a coherent grouping. The garden emphasises the small scale appearance with mini trees and precisely cut hedge Above, this house has an attractive setting fronting a secondary road, and could be improved with relatively minor modifications. The entrance to the site appears incomplete; replacement hedging to the front boundary would be preferable to fencing. The bulk of the building is minimised by using the roof space for upper floor bedrooms. The front door is placed where it is difficult to make it the focus of the façade. The mixed wall treatment, brick and painted render, does not follow through to the projecting gable. A gable roof to the garage may have been preferable Above, new cluster in the countryside; holiday cottages use a courtyard form effectively, with gated entrance Above, sited in a flat and exposed location, the house is conspicuous and would benefit from a much more ambitious tree-planting programme, to screen and shelter the house. The open site makes it difficult to allow the building to fit into the landscape 25

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    Landscape Issues: • Successful schemes succeed by using and adapting existing characteristics of the local landscape, so that new and existing boundaries tie in the development with its surroundings, and by conserving the existing landscape on site (trees, land form, banks, hedges) • Gardens in the countryside are not like suburban gardens. They should engage with the surrounding landscape, using local species of plant, preferably retaining parts of the garden as field/meadow or in a wild state Use of materials: • Most building materials come from outside the region, and abroad. Such an extensive choice demands discrimination and restraint in order to maintain local distinctiveness • Some materials are environmentally questionable, such as uPVC. Sustainability criteria should be used in buildings • The design of timber buildings, if used, should adapt to local visual traditions • Render is the most common wall surface used and allows for variation in colour and texture √ Above, this house uses its proximity to the woodland to create a natural setting and maintains the garden as a simple grass area Above, example of ribbon development suburbanisation - hedges interrupted, mix of materials, different heights, roof styles, producing visual confusion in the countryside √ Above, another house, timber and slate, on the edge of woodland, where neither the woodland nor the field boundaries are disturbed, and the garden is a miniature field 26

Source Westmeath County Council: Rural Design Guidelines · 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.