Cork-based fuinneamh workshop complete a family home in rural Country Clare that uses the architectural language of 20th century Irish farmhouses to create a spacious, bright and subtly quirky take on the traditional template.

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Jed Niezgoda, Seán Antóin Ó Muirí

Cork-based practice, fuinneamh workshop have recently completed Gort Uí Ghaoithín; a family home set within the rural landscape of County Clare, influenced by early 20th century Irish farmhouses. The house is organised around four square courts, establishing a measured rhythm between enclosure and openness. The scheme is made up of three simple, block volumes arranged around these squares. A central block, containing the shared living spaces, mediates between two wings that accommodate sleeping quarters, an arrangement that balances collective and private life.

A porch marks the entrance to the central volume, from where the internal organisation unfolds to reflect a geometrically disciplined plan. The four squares operate not only as ordering devices but as moments of pause to frame views, admit light, and structure movement through the house.

Openings are handled with particular care, drawing on the proportions and rhythms of the traditional Irish farmhouses, and classical repetition. Windows are placed to echo these influences, while blind openings are used to maintain consistency where functionality precludes. 

Materially, the house has a wet dash plaster finish, drystone walling and a black slate roof, aligning itself with local building traditions. These choices are pragmatic, using established methods and materials to mediate between climate, craft and context.

At 295 meters square, the house is relatively large yet its organisation ensures that it remains coherent. The use of simple volumes and a limited material palette allows the spatial strategy to take centre stage with the interplay of shared spaces and private rooms.

Gort Uí Ghaoithín is a measured approach to rural domestic architecture; one that draws from vernacular precedent without imitation. Through a disciplined plan and a restrained architectural language, the project offers a contemporary interpretation of the Irish farmhouse, calibrated to the needs of family life while remaining grounded in its landscape.

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