This house takes the place of a former long cottage on a south-facing site overlooking the Kenmare River in Co. Kerry. Constrained by planning considerations to use a traditional form, the house is conceived so that the form reads as a monolith with no extraneous details.
Within this form the interior is open plan at ground floor, and the entire volume can be perceived at once. The space contains a large mezzanine which serves as a studio for the artist owner, as well as a bedroom and bathroom.
Externally the window opes are splayed to make explicit the timber frame and aquapanel construction, and to emphasise the monolithic quality of the form. Behind the house, an annexe containing library and storage burrows into the mountainside, which extends down to cover the roof.
