Tower House
This house is situated on a beautiful site in Killnaspick , County Kilkenny. Our clients wanted a house that was modest in appearance and had a strong connection to the wooded copse which lies five metres below the level of the adjacent field. The house draws inspiration from a number of sources, most notably the practice in Medieval Ireland of building tower houses, at one point 8000 tower houses existed in the Irish landscape. This tower house is all but hidden from view and forms part of a spatial sequence that leads from open field to hidden woodland.
Internally our clients wanted a house of differentiated open plan style spaces along with cosy corners and smaller rooms to read books or quietly study or work, these are inspired in my design by the inglenooks and window seats of the Arts and Crafts movement. The open plan spaces are bright and open and have a strong connection with the hidden copse. For economic reasons it is of simple construction, masonry walls, externally insulated and rendered and timber floors. It is highly insulated and aims to achieve good passive solar gain from the large south-west facing windows.
