House at Renvyle - Co. Galway
category: residential

Remodeled & Extended Holiday House
Prioritising Views & Sun-Light
Materials Respecting Context

project details
House at Renvyle
Co. Galway

Completed:

Winner of:


The project involved the remodelling and extension of an existing holiday house in north-west Connemara. The existing dwelling comprised a single-storey, cottage-style house and two adjoining smaller buildings, each separately entered and providing bedrooms for guests. The brief was to reconstruct the two separate buildings as an integrated extension to the main house, with a large attic room included in the roof space to provide additional sleeping accommodation.

A principle consideration in the design was to ensure that the remodelled house would take full advantage of both views and sun-light. Windows from the dining and living spaces in the original house looked out on stunning sea-views of Inishbofin, Inishturk and Killary, with the Mweelrea mountains and Atlantic as the backdrop beyond. As these windows were on the north-east and north-west facades, they introduced little sun-light into the most-used parts of the house. The sun is brought into the remodelled house and an open, airy feel created in its living areas by the enlargement of the original small kitchen which, with its high ceiling, exposed timber beams & roof glazing, has now become the focal point of the house, opening on one side into the dining and living spaces and on the other into a new sun-room.  This area has been created by the addition of a fully glazed gable-ended bay to the side of the house, which floods the interior with light and leads out through sliding patio-doors to a sun-trap patio where morning coffee can be enjoyed at leisure.

The external design of the remodelled house & materials used seek to respect its context and the natural beauty of its setting. The house with its two gable-ended wings, simple elevational treatment and use of natural stone and slate sits easily into the landscape of which it belongs

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Projects featured have been carried out by David Jordan Architects or by David Jordan, acting in a principle role, with his former practice Campbell Conroy Hickey Partnership