Besides Iceland, Ballyconneely peninsula in Ireland’s Connemara, County GalwayIreland is one of the westernmost parts of Europe. Mountains, coves and rocky inlets define the rugged area as much as the Atlantic stretching to the west. Ellis and Seamus, a married couple with two children, constructed a weekend house in this beautiful landscape, an hour’s drive from their home in Galway.
The couple met with architect John Dorman in 1998, hired him after liking his initial plan and moved to the house just before Christmas in 1999. A decade and a half after, they”still find this construction completely fit for purpose… a construction that’s both timeless and sensitive to its environment,” the customers wrote in an overview of the work. Their description strikes upon what makes the construction so successful: It responds to the environment and the place’s history without sacrificing any modern needs.
in a Glance
Who lives here: This really is a weekend home for Ellis and Seamus, who are married, and their two children (now young adults)
Location: Ballyconneely, Connemara, Ireland
Size: 1,800 square feet
That is interesting: The architect’s varied inspirations — spanning old and new, traditional and modern, history and pop culture — unite to make a contextual retreat that addresses modern needs.
Dorman Architects
Dorman’s answer to environmental variables is instantly apparent when one means the house. The forecourt was formed from a dip in the slope, where the garage has been constructed; it is tucked beneath the living areas, which are positioned on one floor above. The house is a simple rectangular bar that runs out of the garage on the west to the master suite on the east; the long elevation here faces south. The entrance to the house is through the gentle rise of the staircase on the left.
Dorman Architects
“The house itself is aligned north–south across the site’s shapes,” Dorman explains. “To the north the field rises up gently, and to south the principal viewpoints overlook Ballyconneely Bay. The gables face east, towards the rising sun and the remote Twelve Bens mountains, and to the west towards the setting sun.”
Here we are looking within the bay to the south side of the house. It stands outside, with its white walls and dark slate roof, yet does not look out of place.
Dorman Architects
The house takes advantage of this southern orientation through some big windows as well as with a covered verandah that’s accessed through the family area (wood walls) and master suite (sliding doors on right).
Dorman Architects
Before we head inside, here is a close-up of the stone steps that cause the door. The slow rise is a really nice touch, reacting to the natural slope and creating an easy transition out of the garage and forecourt to the inside. This conduct delivers people to the center of the house, as we’ll see in the plan that follows.
(Notice the skinny window above the garage, as it serves an important function within the house.)
Dorman Architects
Initially I described the house as a rectangular bar, but that’s an oversimplification that does not get in the plan’s best qualities. Another way to consider it is as a rectangle that’s carved at two corners — in the northwest for the entrance measures and in the southeast to your porch. Still another way to describe it is two smaller rectangles that contain the bedrooms and overlap to produce the open family space. Regarding the past, Dorman admits that he was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s use of sliding and overlapping rectangles (as evidenced in the Robie House).
As important as the articulation of spaces through rectangles is the positioning of storage along with other services on the north wall, where smaller openings are provided. Dorman found sway in Jørn Utzon’s own house in Hellebæk, Denmark (1952), also Edward Cullinan’s Marvin House in San Francisco (1959), but also in the one-room-deep cottages average of western Ireland.
Dorman Architects
Yet the inside does not seem derivative, possibly because Dorman’s influences are equally varied and wide. A few tactics define the inside and make it distinctive: the curved ceiling beneath the gable, the birch walls lining the spaces as well as the fitting pocket doors (notice the locations in the floor plan), which provide the family room privacy and flexibility. A lot of Dorman’s influences are observed in those pocket doors: the Rietveld Schröder House’s elastic inside formed by sliding panels along with the architect’s childhood fascination with the 1960s TV series Get Smart and its introduction sequence of automatic sliding doors.
Here we are looking to the west along with the guest rooms–children’s rooms. A sliding door may close off those spaces from the family room, however if open the tall window above the doorway sits perfectly in the end of the hallway vista. Dorman clarifies it in other terms:”On the equinox when most of the doors are open, the low-angle setting sunlight dissipates slowly throughout the west bedroom, down the corridor and into the wood-lined living area, bathing it in a golden glow before dropping below the horizon” Lovely.
Dorman Architects
Like the vertical window over the garage, each window is well considered. The large window in the family area is visible immediately after you enters the house and turns to the right.
Dorman Architects
Another corner of the living room functions the dining area and gives access to the porch and the master suite; the final is served with a sliding birch door that may close off it from this space. Notice the horizontal window by the dining table.
Dorman Architects
Here’s the view from this horizontal window, perfectly framing the horizon and vista for someone seated in the table.
Dorman Architects
A 180-degree turn from the dining table we view the kitchenwhich will be along the north wall but that is still served by a window. Inspired by a 1970s house in Rhode Island designed by Christopher H.L. Owen, a long horizontal window is placed between the lower and upper cabinets.
Over the bookcase (also birch) in the left is a north-facing skylight that balances the natural light entering the space from the southwest.
Dorman Architects
The skylight also acts as sundial of types, letting some direct sunlight to enter and cast distinctive patterns onto the side wall below the curved ceiling.
Dorman Architects
The master bath is also served with a horizontal window, and in the dining room area, the logic of its location is instantly apparent. No wonder I printed this window and tub create for”a beautiful scene to soak in while soaking”
Dorman Architects
The previous kind of window — accompanying the big openings, horizontal and vertical windows, along with skylight — is square. There is one in every one of the bedrooms in the west coast. (They’re visible alongside the timber shutters in the first photograph of the ideabook, and there’s also one in the family room near a writing desk.)
Since Dorman describes it, the”window becomes a landscape painting,” and it is hard to argue with this. The attractiveness of western Ireland’s landscape is incontrovertible, and in Dorman’s hands this weekend house carefully opens up itself to its surroundings while still functioning as exactly what the customers call a comfy and cozy cocoon.