Kildare County Development Plan 2005-2011 Volume 2

(B) Rural Building Tradition 22.2 Rural Building tradition 22.2.3 Vernacular Cottages Traditional cottage and doorway, Nurney 22.2.1 Introduction Traditional cottages have a timeless quality, but would mainly survive from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, typically as The rural traditions of building in County Kildare are influenced by single-storey, long buildings with central kitchen and bedrooms at history, climate and local geology, which determined in the past the either end. Often, they would be located fronting and close to the local availability of materials for building. roadside; alternatively they fronted onto a large courtyard known as a bawn, with outbuildings on either side. They would have been 22.2.2 Medieval thatched originally, but few thatched roofs survive, having been replaced with slate as an easier to maintain material. The earliest and most dramatic domestic buildings were the fortified tower houses and castles of the Anglo-Norman nobility. Traditional cottage outside Ballitore Their medieval origins are expressed through the gothic style of the openings. Few of these buildings remain in their original form, mostly in ruins or attached to later houses, from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Kilkea Castle - fortified tower-house from Anglo-Norman times Traditional cottage near Suncroft, Substantial thatched cottage near Kildangan/Monasterevin Carbury Castle - Commanding position on Carbury Hill 160 Kildare County Development Plan 2005-2011, Volume 2 Chapter 22 Kildare Rural Design and Development Guidelines 161 2005-2011, Volume 2 2005-2011, Volume Kildare County Development Plan Kildare Farm and outbuildings, near Punchestown y m within the village at Carbur Far Stone walls and stone outbuildings, near Castledermot mhouse, near Castledermot gian far More ambitious farmhouses adopted a classical style, usually in a More form, with stone and slate two-storey very simply proportioned, outbuildings. Simple Geor 22.2.4 Classical Farmhouses Classical proportions on a nineteenth century farmhouse, near Leixlip ouses are dispersed throughout the County. dispersed throughout ouses are raditional housing in the County. The Land Commission houses raditional housing in the County. These buildings may be found throughout Ireland as they were Ireland These buildings may be found throughout forms have plans. Their simple, robust standard constructed from well over the years and they have become part of the weathered t the County Council in the Northwest, whereas very prevalent are h County Council housing near Derrinturn 22.2.6 Land Commission and County Council Housing County Council house from the 1930’s Gable view of County Council cottage Lodge to a house near Kilcullen Castletown - detail of one of the connecting wings Vistas across the lake to Lyons Hill across the lake to Lyons Vistas ements of the equir 2005-2011, Volume 2 2005-2011, Volume ession in the Irish countryside. nlike medieval times where the estates were centred on the centred the estates were nlike medieval times where he relative wealth of the County saw the development of the ‘big he relative estate, included manager’s houses and lodges as well as the estate, included manager’s stables, sheds and outbuildings for the agricultural needs of the estate. The architecture of Castletown and Lyons House demonstrate the of Castletown and Lyons The architecture There sophistication of the Irish versions of classical architecture. than with landscaped parks of more over 60 estates in Kildare were and countless country houses operating as studs, or 20 hectares farmhouses and substantial farms. The integral quality of park and to develop the lands. by proposals house is often threatened Building was not confined to the house, as the r house’, an adaptation of ideas deriving from Palladian architecture house’, an adaptation of ideas deriving from England, to find sublime in Italy; ideas, which travelled through expr U fortified house, in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, t Kildare County Development Plan Kildare 22.2.5 Country Estates by Oliver Grace Demesne, late eighteenth, early nineteenth century, Lyons and Richard Morrison 162 Chapter 22 Kildare Rural Design and Development Guidelines Chapter 22 Kildare Rural Design and Development Guidelines 163 2005-2011, Volume 2 2005-2011, Volume Kildare County Development Plan Kildare ge house in village f lar Suburban bungalow types do not fit into an upland setting near Kilteel One-of Skilful design in upland setting Gable fronted two-storey near Kilteel – this suburban form is obtrusive in a rural location owth in eflects a gradual gr haps to the cottage types of traditional ficult to use many examples as pointers to an oach to single house design. ring per efer , it is dif opriate appr odern one-off houses built around towns and villages and odern houses built around one-off The scale of these buildings r throughout the countryside comprise a plethora of styles and ideas. throughout M expectation and wealth; many, if not most are single-storey, or one- single-storey, if not most are expectation and wealth; many, (known as dormer bungalows). Planning and-a-half storey, practice over the years has tended to favour such low buildings as a model, r houses. the availability of built, reflect which they are The materials, from Many in Europe. building products produced almost any currently plans, to standard designed using or with reference houses are The impact is which in turn a wide range of sources. come from diverse, and sometimes disorientating as the sense of place can be the patternslost where do not belong or fit in. well-designed houses in Thus, whilst it is possible to find recent, the County appr 22.2.7 the 1960s onwards Modern Houses from One-off Bungalows, open plan gardens and timber fencing seem alien to this upland setting (C) Design Guidelines 22.3.1 Design Guidelines Village Clusters It sets out an explanation of the options available within the particular sense of place of each village. It is proposed that a Development Plan for grouped development, which is intended to ‘cluster’ should be the normal unit of development for villages. The 23.3.1 Introduction reduce the pressure for single dwellings. The County Council proposal is illustrated with what may be considered as the smallest wishes to promote the benefits of grouped housing in order to scale of a cluster, not less than about four and up to about 15 This section provides guidelines for the design of village clusters. facilitate rural need, where ‘centralisation’ to a larger settlement, dwellings. They are proposed as a response to the need to make available may not always provide a location-sensitive solution. affordable and social housing in rural areas of County Kildare and New village cluster of affordable housing in Jersey, with St Mary’s village to deal with local housing need. They are also a response to the Kildare County Council, in partnership with other organisations, church in background pressure from urban-generated housing demand in the rural areas. contributes pro-actively towards rural development in the following ways; The unrestrained growth of single houses in the countryside is • Acquisition of land in appropriate locations for grouped recognised to be a threat even where there may be demonstrated housing schemes social need. A pro-active policy towards building clusters in rural • Provision of grouped serviced sites for affordable and low-cost villages, will help to shift the balance of desirability from the isolated single unit housing one-off house towards the more socially and environmentally • Provision of housing groups by the County Council, preferably satisfactory alternative of a dwelling in a cluster with ready-made mixing social housing with affordable and private categories, neighbours, a good social mix and the prospect of sustainable according to locational suitability services. • Partnership with developer in generating grouped development/partnership with an approved Housing Village cluster, Calverstown Organisation to provide groups of housing. Possible options for creating housing clusters attached to rural nodes, and in rural villages, are described as Village Clusters to emphasise the distinctive quality and intention of clustered development at a rural level, recollecting the tradition of cooperation in the provision of new houses in rural settlements. In Medieval Kildare, there was a proliferation of rural boroughs, groups of about four or five houses, built together for self- 22.3.3 Strengthening the Settlement Network - Village Clusters protection and relying on communal effort to survive and flourish. These were the Norman version of a small clustered settlement. Chapter 6 in volume 1 has identified the desirability of building in The clachan farm settlement is another clustered form, although it designated villages within rural areas to minimise the impact of one- was not common in Kildare. The proposition to use a cluster has off development. However, sporadic, suburban-style development good antecedents in the landscape in Kildare; in association with, around existing villages should be avoided. The pressure for single and attached to existing small settlements they will define and limit houses on the edge of villages is no less great than in the open the inhabited area of the countryside, create the opportunity for countryside, yet the very nature of the village is to create a node or shelter within and help to strengthen the sense of place of these 22.3.2

Load more