Lough Road

This house in a rural part of Ireland has been carefully designed to create a tranquil environment in which a couple can enjoy their retirement, growing old with independence and dignity.  Internal spaces flow into one another, and out to the natural surroundings, immersing inhabitants in surrounding flora and fauna, bats and birdlife, and views, over newly formed ponds, to distant Lough Neagh.

The external appearance of the house, with its timber frame construction fully clad in cedar shingles that are gracefully weathering to grey, blends in with its wooded surrounds, almost as if it has always been there.  Two vernacular forms, one for living, one for sleeping, sit at an angle to one another, connected by a glazed entrance link.  There is an inherent softness to the house’s natural materials, neutral tones and rounded and non-rectilinear edges.  Concrete floors tie the spaces together, while carefully-placed windows frame views.