Client: Confidential

Location: Hogans Pass, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary

Role: Design Architects

Project Type: Private Residence to achieve "Passive House" Standard

Construction Value: Confidential

Description: Planning Permission Granted.
The proposed dwelling is located in a large paddock with a boundary of native trees and a stone wall. From the offset the primary objective was to create a design that expressed the "genus loci" of the site, while also embedding the proposed house carefully into the landscape. The natural curves of the boundary, the location of mature trees and the wish to retain much of the site as a paddock, informed our response and generated a specific design.

Having determined the site layout and position of the building our next objective was to create a series of open and private spaces around the house that would become part of the sequence that leads you up to the house, through the house and finally out into the adjacent south facing garden spaces.

Once this was achieved we focused on a building that maximised solar gain, minimised heat loss and created shelter for itself. The main house is split into two distinct building forms, one tall, vertical element, with a traditional appearance that contains all living, kitchen and dining areas. The second block is composed of a long, lower linear form which contains all sleeping areas. A light, glazed winter garden connects the two forms and visually ties them together.

The low energy and sustainable strategy for this house includes high levels of insulation and air tightness, mechanical heat recovery ventilation, (MHRU) solar thermal panels and a pellet boiler. Building materials will include eco-slates made from recycled plastic, timber windows and a sedum roof.