If you are travelling from Galway city to Connemara, and you wander off the beaten track, you might find yourself on a laneway running down to the sea.
A whitewashed cottage is tucked in to the left, facing the shore. The low pavilion in front of the house suggests that this is no ordinary house. When you step inside, it still feels like a cottage with its low ceilings and cosy rooms, but turn to the right and the house opens up to reveal dramatic views of the Atlantic Ocean. The floor-to-ceiling windows showcase the drystone walls, seagrass and shallow pools that surround the house.
Renovating a house close to the water’s edge must be a coveted job for an architect, and Jane Larmour and Patrick Wheeler of Arigho Larmour Wheeler Architects agree it was a very enjoyable project to work on.
“There’s these fabulous original drystone walls running all around the site, which are just magnificent,” says Wheeler. “Standing in front of the house you are looking across at the Burren and Co Clare. It’s a really magical location.”
RM Block
They were approached after the homeowners bought the house and wanted to make more of the location.
“The original cottage would have had quite a number of adaptations and extensions and the kind of accretions that happen over time, extra porches and all sorts of things,” says Larmour.
“So it was a case of trying to consolidate the existing cottage and then complementing it, not simply to give them more floor space but really just to improve their lives there.”
A small conservatory facing the sea had been added during earlier renovations, but the homeowners believed that much more could be done to honour the location. They wanted to wake up to views of the ocean, and have a large kitchen, dining and living area facing the seascape.
“What was kind of interesting about the project was how obvious it was what to do, and then how aligned we were with the clients,” he says. “Very quickly we came up with the design, which was to knock down this conservatory and then connect from the existing building into a pavilion setting in front of the house.”
The architects’ drawings from that first meeting had hardly changed by the end of the project, which they say is a rare occurrence. Everything flowed smoothly from then on, and today the house nestles into the Connemara landscape as though it has always been there.
When you enter the cottage, you get what Wheeler describes as “a most joyous surprise”.
“You walk into this hallway and all of a sudden the scale changes and you’re into this tall, bright space with these expansive views. You’ve got the cottage character, which has smaller windows and is cosy with low ceilings, and then you’ve got a completely different character, which is really bright with tall ceilings and really expansive views. It’s a really lovely contrast.” And it means that if the weather is too bleak to look at, the homeowners can retreat to their cosy sittingroom in the cottage.
Light is brought into the new kitchen and living area with clerestory windows, which run along the length of the building. The oak veneer-lined walls connect the original building with the new build and give a warm feel to the kitchen area.
“We design all the fitted joinery ourselves with the intention that everything feels coherent,” says Larmour. Westmeath cabinet maker John Glennon did all the joinery, including the oak kitchen. Some kitchen doors are stained black, standing out in the light-filled space. To the side, a secret door slides away to reveal a bedroom suite with those panoramic views.
A large overhang on the extension’s sloping roof protects the glass from overheating because the room is facing directly south.
“This means when you are sitting in the livingroom you are not blinded by the sun,” says Wheeler. That extended canopy also means the homeowners can open the doors on a rainy day and still feel a bit of a breeze. Larmour notes that the terrace was designed so that you can sit on it and dangle your legs over the edge and feel the grass below. It also gives ample space for entertaining, whatever the weather.
The project has greatly improved the energy rating of the house. An air source heat pump heats the house and the underfloor heating means the extension’s polished concrete floors are cosy underfoot. External insulation, new windows throughout and deep insulation in the attic means that the Ber has gone from D to A2.
“It’s just a fabulously environmentally friendly house and it’s very warm,” he says.
The single-storey pavilion is lifted several steps above the floor level of the existing house and appears to hover above the ground, yet it blends into the background when seen from the shoreline, because of the material used – a black charred timber.
“It’s much less prominent than if it’s a white building,” says Wheeler. “It feels quite settled when you are looking back from the sea.”
The corrugated metal roof is well insulated and blends in well in an area populated with farm buildings.
The windswept nature of the site was a key consideration for the structural engineers when planning the design. “It’s extremely exposed to all the weather that the Atlantic will send to it so we had to keep that in mind,” says Wheeler. The risks posed by wind uplift meant a timber structure was immediately ruled out, and a steel and concrete structure was agreed upon.
Larmour says one of the lovely aspects of the project was working with the builders, the Carna-based family business Jackie Folan Ltd. “They were all local and just felt so connected to the project. I’m very happy with how it all turned out.”
Wheeler says it was a pleasure to revisit the house when the work was complete. “There’s just a lovely level of light in it and it’s incredibly relaxing, very calm and of course you have the beautiful views,” he says. “One of the joys of doing this job is you know that you can make people happy and make their lives better and that’s absolutely what happened here. It’s just a joy to spend time in.”
If you want to get a sense of what it’s like to spend time in this house, there will be three architect-led tours of the house on October 5th as part of the Architecture at the Edge festival. See architectureattheedge.com for more information
