Low Energy Private House – Co Waterford

We were engaged by our clients to advise on the purchase of a site and to design a new home for them in Co. Waterford.

The concept for this house emerged through analysis of the chosen coastal site and its context, in combination with our clients’ requirements and desires for their new home.

The plan form of the house emerged from a need to create bright and airy volumes with spectacular views to the sea some distance away. To achieve this, our first decision was to locate principal rooms on the first floor and bedroom spaces on the floor below. The building essentially is the result of two curvilinear and cradling intersecting lines, which optimises the building’s southerly orientation and makes maximum use of the sun path. These two lines also create a separation between the privacy of an enclosed circular garden and the formality of a curved cedar-clad feature wall to the building’s main entrance.

The entrance to the house is elevated in a celebratory fashion opening to a spectacular vestibule. Internal spaces are then allowed to naturally result from the strong curvilinear geometry of the building’s plan. Principal rooms on the upper floor allow clear visual connections between interesting and unique spaces and separating walls are used in a sculptural sense in order to create strong reinforcing geometries.

​At the heart of the house, we have designed a two storey passive solar conservatory which will serve to pre-heat the house. In addition to this, the house has been super-insulated and has been fitted with a state of the art geo-thermal heating system.