Design guide · Wicklow County Council
Single Rural Houses Design Guidelines (County Development Plan, appendix 2)
The council's guidance on siting and designing a house in the countryside.
Wicklow County Council · 38 pages
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- DWELLINg SHAPE EXAMPLES Avoid suburban dwelling forms; awkward scales, wide gables, eaves over 55°, over-sails, PVC cladding, ornate finishings. Eroded roof Ornate porch/pillars Steep Swiss roof Half porch type Large glass portico Clerestory roof Projecting twin gables & bay windows Flat roof unless carefully designed Mansard roof Salt box roof Recessed porch Large roof to wall ratio, excessive amount of dormers and skylights
- 12 ROOF STYLE House formats should be avoided that require excessive roofing – i.e. the ratio of ‘roof to wall’ needs careful consideration. Where an appropriate building format is used, this problem should not arise; however, deep plan bungalows or bungalows with large dormer spaces tend to have excessively large roofs and therefore appear ‘unbalanced’. This should be addressed by breaking up the roof mass, for example, by creating a ‘valley roof’ that will effectively halve the size of the roof. Modern houses tend to include roof edges that significantly ‘oversail’ the external walls, a feature which gives the roof more ‘dominance’ over the main structure of the house, thereby weakening its appearance and rendering the appearance out of keeping with traditional Irish rural house features. Eaves overhang should be minimised or mitigated by good design. To make new rural houses as unobtrusive as possible and in keeping with traditional rural houses, roofs will normally be required to be tiled or slated in dark colours such as blue / black or dark brown. DORMER STYLE Where a dormer style house is selected as the best option, this should be in the format of a 1 ½ storey dwelling, with dormer windows extending upwards out of the main walls of the house, rather than the provision of a number of ‘break-through’ type dormer windows, as these tend to require a larger mass of roof. The use of rooflights to mid-roof dormers will be preferred and these should be so constructed to sit flush with the roof slates. Simple eaves with dormer window extended out of the facade in matching render. Symmetrical rooflights recommended to reduced building scale. Avoid box verges and eaves and the use of cladding. Ideally the dormer window should be connected to the facade and not protruding from the roof. Where appropriate, or on screened facades, well scaled contemporary dormers may be acceptable.
- 13 Examples of porch layouts using the same material as the dwelling. Timber door with painted finish. Modern door in traditional vernacular. Sash window. Drop sill with vertical divides. Simple matching openings across the entire facade complete with a porch of the same finish. Dunlavin, County Wicklow. WINDOWS & DOORS Careful consideration must be given to the ‘solid-to-void’ relationship on a dwelling façade i.e. the relationship of solid wall to openings. The arrangement of openings should be kept simple and should be normally of the same size and style across the entire façade. Openings should be placed around the ‘central’ axis of the façade and should normally be symmetrical unless a high quality design allows otherwise. Windows should generally be vertical in emphasis and in proportion to the rest of the house. Oversized feature windows to certain living spaces are permissible, but only where the length to width ratio is appropriate and the integrity of the overall design and balance of the house is not compromised. Over-elaborate door styles should be avoided e.g. overly glazed panels or fan lights, as should large and fussy porches or canopies, particularly those including mock classical detailing and pillars.
- MATERIALS Rural houses in County Wicklow are typically rendered and painted white / off white and this will be the normal finish required for new rural houses. Dashing with a coloured chip / pebble will not be permitted. Brick, timber and metal finishes are not common and have only appeared in the last 30 years. The use of stone in domestic scale buildings would have been uncommon, although there are some localised exceptions, for example, areas surrounding quarries e.g. Ballyknockan. New houses will be required to utilise finishes common to and suited to the area. However, in locations where alternatives to painted render are typical or where a site is highly screened, alternative materials may be considered. The use at an appropriate scale of timber, metal or stone features on a mainly rendered house to provide visual interest is welcomed, subject to correct positioning of the feature element and the use of the highest quality and appropriate materials. Brick will not normally be considered in any rural location but as set out above, where the site is well screened or very unobtrusive, flexibility in materials permitted will be afforded. Required external pipework and cabling associated with modern technology should be subtly located and should be coloured or painted to allow it is blend in with the façade. Ornate fascias, patterned metal work, reconstituted stone / cladding or pre-cast features shall not be permitted. 14 15 16 17 Uncommon materials are adequately screened. Rural vernacular roof and eaves. Considered balance of traditional and contemporary design.
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- ENTRANCE DESIgN & DRIVEWAYS Naturalistic boundary planting and stone wall. Ballinaclash, County Wicklow Splayed timber fence entrance with mature trees. County Wicklow New entrances shall be required to comply with current engineering safety standards with respect to sightlines and gradient and set back sufficiently to allow a car to pull off the road while a gate is being opened or closed. The appearance of entrances shall be modest and suitable to the rural context and grandiose entrances with high wing walls, pillars and elaborate gates will not be permitted. Where feasible, the location of the entrance and driveway should be offset from the location of the dwelling so as to retain the roadside boundary to the front of the house. In highly scenic locations, applicants may be required to leave driveways only roughly surfaced to give a natural appearance. All driveways shall provide sufficient area for car parking and turning on site. However, large hard paved car parking / turning areas, particularly to the front of the site, should be avoided. Completely circling the house with hard surfaced areas / paths should be avoided – where possible, the garden should be brought right up to the house. Example of a basic splayed entrance. 5m 6-8m 0.8m Avoid over-elaborate suburban entrances, precast walling, pillars and ornaments New mounded entrance retaining existing planting and moat. County Wicklow Timber fence with native planting and vernacular iron gate. County Wicklow 19 20 21 22
- 23 Contemporary design with well thought-out boundary to absorb the design into the landscape. WALLS / BOUNDARIES The design of walls and boundaries, particularly those along public road frontages, shall be suitable to the rural location. In the first instance, existing hedges and trees lining boundaries should be maintained. However, where they require to be removed for sightline or other reasons, they shall be replaced by a similar hedge of native species interspersed with suitable native trees. Long stretches of solid walls or railings will not be permitted, notwithstanding their perceived design quality. Sod-and-stone banks and dense hedges behind roadside drainage ditches are the prevalent traditional roadside boundary in County Wicklow – it will be a normal requirement of permission that such boundaries be provided or reinstated. Existing side or rear boundaries, particularly mature field boundaries, should be maintained. Where new boundaries are required, they should not comprise solid walls or long straight, dense lines of evergreen trees. Instead clusters of trees at strategic locations around the site, which will appear more natural in time, will be preferred.
- LANDSCAPINg All applicants for rural dwellings will be required to submit landscaping proposals. Landscaping schemes should normally be prepared by a landscape architect or other suitably qualified professional. To assimilate the house into the landscape, additional naturalistic planting is recommended along boundaries or the provision of strategically located clusters within the site. A mixture of native hedge species (such as whitethorn, blackthorn, whitebeam, holly and gorse), deciduous and evergreen tree species should be used. Tree species planted shall include mountain ash, silver birch, willow, oak, sycamore, larch, spruce and pine. On exposed sites consider using species native to the immediate area to guarantee growth and shelter. In visually problematic sites, the use of landscaping mounds may be required. Landscaping including tree planting brought close to the house can reduce its impact and assist in integrating the house into the site. Planting should cut across the path of the wind and should be sited to make use of and improve natural shelter features such as ridges and rocky outcrops. 25 24
- OUTBUILDINGS The number of detached out-buildings on a rural site shall be kept to the minimum necessary and permission may be refused for excessive additional garages or stores where the need for same cannot be clearly demonstrated. Outbuildings should be located close to the main house and should be positioned to replicate a rural vernacular / farmyard format. Two-storey garages or garages in excess of 40sqm will not normally be permitted. ENERgY EFFICIENCY The planning authority will favourably consider proposals where attention has been paid to ensuring that the house is designed in a manner to ensure compliance with the highest energy efficiency standards. Guidance on this matter is set out in Chapter Volume 4 (1) Development Design Standards of the Wicklow County Development Plan. 26 27 28 Dutch barn outbuilding conversion. County Wicklow.
Source Wicklow County Council: Single Rural Houses Design Guidelines (County Development Plan, appendix 2) · 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.