modern rural architecture ???

You should look at the work of Donaghy + Diamond architects, they have some very beautiful rural work, which is a contemporary reworking of vernacular forms. Also Dominic Stevens has some very interesting work, including his own house made of straw bale and a mirror clad box which won a AAI award last year. Also Liam McCormick, produced some very beautiful modernist work.

http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7037&usg=__kR4B3KNtAJLydTYXvQCQP1n0isc=

why is so hard to find Donaghy + Diamond webpage

Because they don’t have one…
You’ll have to get the journals out.

yeah, Dominic Stevens ‘Mimetic house’ is very interesting…

some reasons for the lack of ‘contemporary design’ would be:

1. lack of county architects
2. unwillingness of planners to allow anything un-vernacular.
3. skewed relationship in clients minds of design costs – build costs
4. unwillingness of some architectural firms to take on one-off rural housing

i don’t have access to any journals, fecking elitists

@henno wrote:

2. unwillingness of planners to allow anything un-vernacular.

I wouldn’t necessarily agree with the implication that contemporary can’t be vernacular!

maybe i should have phrased it as an unwillingness to create a new vernacular…

contemporary can be vernacular… however theres an unwillingness to break from traditional forms even when the ‘modern’ design is preferential to vernacular.

Some planners stick too rigidly to published design guides…

as in… its ok to build a mock-1840s georgian manor home in the year 2008… but its not ok to build a contemporay modern dwelling…. unless it has 40 deg pitched slated roof with vertical windows…. etc

@henno wrote:

contemporary can be vernacular… however theres an unwillingness to break from traditional forms even when the ‘modern’ design is preferential to vernacular.

Some planners stick too rigidly to published design guides…

I’m with you 100%. (+1, in the vernacular)

I’m involved in one of those situations myself at the moment,
. . . . with clients losing faith with every passing day.

scottish and deadly

http://www.ruraldesign.co.uk/

‘Deadly’ as in ‘deadly dull’? They are what we would call here ‘awfy couthy’, i.e. unbelievably safe and cosy; they aren’t bad exactly and they push all the right respect buttons, but they fail to move. You have no idea just how conservative much of the Scottish countryside is (and increasingly not Scottish, i.e. it is a refuge for escapees from the Home Counties – of England).

@johnglas wrote:

‘Deadly’ as in ‘deadly dull’?

‘Deadly’ as in class, gear, gift, ace, etc., I suspect. I quite liked some of the buildings, even if they’re not exactly groundbreaking. Evolution, not revolution?

@gunter wrote:

I’m with you 100%. (+1, in the vernacular)

Are you importing the urban vernacular to a rural context? How insensitive! 😉

ctesiphon: I did get the Irish vernacular usage! They’re not bad and I’ve always been a fan of evolution rather than having to be radical all the time – and the vernacular can equally evolve and does not preclude (to put it mildly) innovation or even – if you have the balls – radical reinterpretation. I paid my first visit at the weekend to the new RHA; the building was impressive in its cool modern way among all that real and imagined Georgian; I was told the artwork was ‘not radical’ – ‘thank fuck!’ I thought and had an enjoyable if fleeting visit, Rural architecture should inspire the same feelings.

Check out the AAI award books, sorry can’t remember which year but was among 1993-2000. Akiboye Connolly got a special mention I think for an rural house which was an interesting take on eco-design, although it’s probably way out of date now.
Also have a look Volume II of 20th Century Architecture, Ireland published by Prestel (ISBN 3-7913-1719-9) edited by A Becker, W Wang and J Olley. It has an excellent essay on this topic on page 87 by Orla Murphy (I uploaded these two images just as a taster – sorry about poor quality). Don’t forget either about Liam McCormack’s beautiful churches (the less well known St. Michael’s in Cresslough is on page 138).

was at the Royal Academy in London last week to hear donaghy and dimond talk about the house they designed with Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh from Altan beside Errigal in Donegal; fantastic talk and a surprise session between Mairéad and one of the architects…great stuff. They have a number of other projects worth looking at aside from this one.

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/events/focusdays/two-stories-donaghy-and-dimond-architects-and-mairead-ni-mhaonaigh,661,EV.html

also worth a look in Donegal is MacGabhann architects http://www.macgabhannarchitects.ie/projects.htm

and for the architecture of Liam McCormick check out the new book ‘north by nortwest’ – sort of the definitive guid to his work http://www.geocities.com/architecturedonegal/index

I also recommend Aughey O’Flaherty Architects http://www.aof.ie/

@gunter wrote:

I’m with you 100%. (+1, in the vernacular)

I’m watching you…

Just had a look at the Macgabhann website and I have to say the designs are Ok but I wasnt all that impressed, the extension on the project named “Mayo Cottage” is the ugliest and most insensitive thing Ive seen in a long time.

…..it’s an odd thing alright, but in their defence, they are (or hope are) construction photographs

hi again everyone
firstly sorry for pretty much dissapearing but all comments are much appreciated and by the looks of it there is some good examles of modern rural architecture.

I’m still going on this topic but have got totally lost in research and don’t know where to start.
I’ve recently written to the RIAI, architects, county councils, organisations set up for rural communities and planners asking them their views on rural architecture. Hopefully there replies will give me something to go on. I’ll put anything I find on here for anyone whose interested.

It would be great If I could also get some opinions from people on here……
Is there is a lack of modern rural architecture?
If so why has this happened ?( is it down to planning, the public, government, architects…who?)

thanks

because there is no incentive to live off the land…
It has been designed out…

exchange rates and economies of scale…

If you have access to the RIAI or AAI award books there are generally some good essays on this topic in those.

Paul Keoghs website has some good essays about rural housing if i remember correctly. http://www.pka.ie/ (essays link at bottom of page)

Perhaps try searching college Theses topics as well.

Some of the County Councils have brought out decent planning guidelines on building sensitively in the landscape, I seem to recall Wexford’s as being quite good.

One of the main challenges is the scale of the average modern house. Back when the typical rural dwelling was a two roomed cottage, you couldn’t but build sensitively in the landscape!

I find that many planning officials still have a tendancy to want to restrict new dwellings to one storey, or the dreaded ‘dormer bungalow’, in the mistaken belief that this will keep a lid on the obtrusiveness issue, when instead, it just magnifies the scale of the roof and kills any potential link to vernacular proportions.

Some Council guidelines address this issue by suggesting the ‘cluster’ solution, so you end up with a house that looks a bit like a cottage, a barn and a mobile home (as in that North County Dublin O’D+T house from ten years ago).

Other cultures (yea I know, here we go again), in the course of history, just developed a new vernacular to address the, prosperity lead, demand for a larger rural house. The typical German farm house of the middle ages, is supposed to have developed out of the simple device of putting a sturdy timber framed first floor over the typical Slavic long house.

Much as every architect would love to get stuck into a nice photogenic one-off, with awards potential, there’s a lot to be said for just developing a simple new vernacular model that would just be so sensible and easy to follow, you couldn’t get it wrong.

We could hold a competition, since there isn’t a whole lot else going on at the moment, and get sponsorship, and we could be on the judging panel, and get expenses and wine, and savage everyone’s drawings we didn’t like!

er . . . better edit out that last bit

Thanks for everything so far everyone. I’ve neglected dissertation for the last while as other projects have taking over. Busy busy time this 3rd year business! But Ive did quite a bit of research and think im narrowing it down abit.

Ive sort of left the idea of weather or not there is enough rural contempory architecture heading more in the line if the there is a lot more housing development going to happen as the population of Ireland increase and looking at how this can be achieved successfully with out ruining the Irish landscape. Comparing urban sprawl, ribbon development and one off housing and trying to come to some sort of conclusion to as which one would be most appropriate.

Some questions maybe….

1. If new housing was keep to housing estates around towns and villages would it save the rural areas for being over developed?

2. How unpopular of a proposal would this be? Its almost asking the question if villages should be allowed to increase in size to compremise with the retention of the countryside.

3. What are the pros and cons to each king of development?

4. How many of you think its down to design rather than location?

I’ve been reading threads on urban sprawl and one off housing and it seems to be a subject that everyone is very passionate about so will be interesting to hear your views.

Thanks again

also…this is a slight stab the dark but if anone was at the desIRE conference in cork in 2007 about designing houses for contemporary ireland. Ive found the timetable but i cant accually fnd any notes or write up about it. its sounds very appropriate for what im doing.

http://www.nationalsculpturefactory.com/desire/

Your doing a dissertation in 3rd year? What college are you in? I thought that was always a 4th/5th year thing?

Anyway, have you looked, by the way, at the Irish entries in the Venice Biennale from 2006, Super-Rural? there is some complete shite in there, like the MacGabhann Architects pop-up housing, but the FKL and Boyd Cody projects might be of interest.