rural housing design
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I am currently doing research for the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture (MoDA) in London, on a touring exhibition called Bungalow Blitz: Another History of Irish Architecture. As you can tell from the title, the exhibition will explore the impact of Jack Fitzsimon’s book, Bungalow Bliss on the built environment of rural (particularly west coast) Ireland. I would like to speak to people who either live in one of these houses or have opinions about them. Please contact me for further details.
Actually, bungalows are the single greatest reason to license architects – and make it so every building project has to have a licensed architect.
I grew up in a bungalow, but I think it predates the book, having been built in the late 60s. When was the book published? I havenm’t seen a copy of it in years.
if you go to somewhere beautiful like the lake district in england youll see how ireland would have been without bungalow blight, what a shame
I remember a booklet published by somebody like the Department of the Environment in the early 1980s about insertion of modern houses into the landscape
It had hints and tips about the cluster mentality of sheds, outhouses and house of the past and how to achieve that with massing in modern houses. It also had a collection of modern designs more suitable to the irish landscape than the haicenda bungalow type.
I cannot remember the title of the booklet or the author.
Perhaps you could search at http://www.paddi.net/
“…the shock official revelation from the Department of the Environment that over 40pc of all new houses being built are now “one-off” first homes for urban young people with no agricultural connections. Planning experts and officials from all over the country attending the conference said yesterday they were shocked at the finding that 15,000 of the 50,000 new houses last year fell into this category and warned of serious repercussions of the “mansion mania and bungalow blitz” phenomenon….” The Irish Independent
from http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ti=41&ca=9&si=421611&issue_id=4374
(Just visited the site. I look forward to visiting it more often. Seems really interesting.)
…That the officials were shocked at the statistics (15K of 50k etc.) must raise the question about what they were doing at ‘work’. How could the volume of planning applications go unnoticed thru’ their offices? I don’t understand the shock element.
What are Architects doing to promote and sell themselves to the Public?
How do the Irish general public compare with other Countries in the use of Architects for the design and planning of private residences?I am researching rural one-off housing design as part of my final year thesis and would appreciate any opinions or suggestions you may have in terms of what you regard as “good design”. I would also greatly appreciate any comments on the current rural design situation in Ireland.
Thanks for your help and cooperation on this matter.Nicolas Pople
Small houses
Founder of Taoism said in 500bc, in order to understand complex things, we must first learn to understand simple things. In order to do big things, we must first learn how to do small things.
I was watching questions and answers last night, and I was struck by one comment made by the Government minister.
The notion of the Irish landscape being divided by townland, parish, county and country. As compared to the idea of Spatial strategies, defining the landscape by City, town, village and hinterland. The old system of townlands and parishs, was mirrored in large institutions like the GAA and the religious organisations. The care for society in terms of health, education and social services was by the religious organisations. Now this modern planning strategy approach by local authorities etc, has been overlaid on top of this.
This was the transfer of power from clergy to state. In our grandfathers and grandmothers times, a lot of people never ventured beyond their own parishes. A lot of people had never been to Dublin, and their lives didn’t seem to suffer from that at all. Our grandfathers and grandmothers would not understand this idea of people all going to Dublin, Cork or Galway to live. And leaving behind their rural roots etc.
Yet it seems that many people in the cities too, are in fact now leaving their mothers and fathers in Kimmage, or Crumlin, or wherever. To go and live in the suburban sprawl of Kildare. Where National Schools cannot keep up to the pace of development and growth. With people living as far away as Carlow, and commuting to Dublin city each day. Perhaps we should be looking at some form of rapid transport, as opposed to something like LUAS?
On the other hand, you should consider how many working mothers there are living in rural Ireland these days, compare to 10 or 20 years ago. A lot of homes in rural Ireland having 2, 3 and 4 cars for the people living in those bungalows. And many National Schools down the country have less children actually coming to the National Schools, in large parishes, where a lot of new bungalows have been built very recently. Why? Because more young couples are choosing not to have families anymore, because work/career/earning and lifestyles are deemed more important.
How many people from rural Ireland went on sunshine holidays twenty years ago, compared to nowadays? Even though the price of flights has bottomed etc, etc. Still it would appear that many more people demand these ‘luxuries’. The day-at-the-beach is all but gone now.
Some useful discussion here perhaps
Try to avoid the gratuitous politician bashing here, but useful comments too
Brian O’ Hanlon.
Clare county council has a document about appropriat building in the countryside
http://www.clare.ie/filerepository/382291.pdf
Wonder why they don’t enforce it!
Tacky and all as they were, bungalows from the 60s-90s seem so much more cheerful, colourful and modest than this current wave of mansions. Everything now just seems so big, immodest, dark stone covered and dull. They all remind me of a cheap version of a dull provincial railway station on a wet day. Im glad i grew up in a bungalow with ridiculous spanish arches.
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