The SiOO X Story – Protecting the Planet - Book - Page 77
Case Study 10
Passive House
Naas, County Kildare, Ireland
House7 Architects
Until the mid-nineteenth century the vast majority of the people
of Ireland lived in houses that they built themselves with the
help of family and neighbours. This vernacular building culture
drew on design templates rooted in a long-standing tradition
in Ireland.
But what exactly is “the vernacular”, what does it mean? It’s the
name given to the type of building, in any country, that has
developed based on local needs and available materials, and
reflects local traditions. Originally, trained architects were not
involved, but buildings resulted from the skills of builders and
craftspeople from the area.
are being renovated and added to and when this is done with
sympathy and a replication of the clean simple lines and proportions associated with the vernacular, the result is a building that
sits naturally in and compliments the landscape. New buildings
using the vernacular form are also being designed.
The Irish vernacular house of the nineteenth or early twentieth
centuries, urban and rural, formed part of the European ernhaus
(hearth house) tradition within which the main cooking hearth
was the lynch-pin of the dwelling. It was/is rectangular in shape,
most frequently single-storey, often with a loft, and one room
in depth, with each room being entered from adjoining rooms,
rather than through a formal hall. Door and window openings
were placed in the long walls of the building and fire-places set
in the middle of the cross-walls. The doorway and one window
of the façade belong to the kitchen and the other windows allow
light to enter the rooms ’above’ and ’below’ this central space.
The house at Naas in County Kildare is a new A-rated passive-designed, part cedar clad house. It is a modern interpretation of
the traditional Irish vernacular rural form. it is a demonstration
of the use of external timber cladding treated to weather in a
natural colour, designed to complement the traditional white
rendering.
SiOO:X benefits:
Compliments traditional vernacular design
Encourages use of carbon sequestering material
Over time the vernacular has gradually disappeared with the
advent of pattern-books and architect, engineer or technician-designed buildings. Vernacular architecture as it survives
today is the recent manifestation, largely built between 1650 and
1850, of an approach to building that began in remote antiquity.
Fortunately, the form is still evident across Ireland. Buildings
Photo: Gareth Byrne.
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