Churchfield House
September 30, 2008
By Karl Peters
Just outside Rush, down a muddy lane surrounded by vegetable fields, is a house that most people on their way to Skerries will miss.
This diamond among the cabbages nestles three field lengths from the rocky coastline, enjoying spectacular views across to Lambay Island.
Malcolm and Anne call Churchfield House home. It stands not as a new home, but an evolution from one home to another, drawn by the architect’s pen but shaped profoundly by her clients.
Malcolm is a successful property developer, always on the lookout for a new challenge. His new relationship and two teenage children meant the next project would be a personal one of converting Anne’s two bedroom dormer bungalow into a family home.
At its most basic, the project that became Churchfield House mark 2, involved making the space bigger, but to call it an extension would be to underestimate the finished product.
Firstly, the extension is larger than the original house, adding an extra 2000 sq ft to the original 900 sq ft of living space. The new space flows from new to old with such seamless ease that it is difficult to discern what might ordinarily be called an extension. This is a new house.
Tania Miller of Kelleher Miller Architects was charged with this task of reinvention. Her brief was to come up with something “modern and minimalist, something that would work with the existing building.”
She had worked with Malcolm before on a project similar in scope, and instantly formed a good working relationship with Anne, so that the three could evolve the project together.
Always open and never didactic, Tania facilitated the needs and ideas of her clients rather than forcing them to see the project through her eyes.
Plans were drawn up, rejected, refined, resubmitted and eventually work could start. Planners liked this bold new piece of architecture. The large timber framed extension.
The use of simple natural elements like zinc roofing, granite stone and cedar cladding attuned the project sympathetically to its natural surroundings. After 6 months of hard labour, the house stood complete and unrecognisable.
Three summers have passed since and the landscaping has matured around the house. Malcolm comes in from pottering in the garden to relax, take a break.
It is easily done sitting in the double height open plan living space. Exposed Douglas fir beams stretch up and across the ceiling, with large wood framed windows in between.
A weathered copper green section of ardicia verde wall tiling reaches to the ceiling, defining the fireplace whilst acting as a unifying link between the three components of this open plan living space, dining room, sitting area and the kitchen.
Anne’s kitchen is as important to her as pages are to a book. It had to be right. The overwhelming impression is of a clean, cream, calming space, that belies the mayhem it can stage before family dinner parties, for which it is perfectly equipped.
Provided by Houseworks, this Shaker inspired kitchen is punctuated with Gaggenau appliances that open and close with that recognisable soft thud of Germanic quality.
A granite topped island provides the central social area of the house, where spectators (Malcolm) can gather and learn how a kitchen really works, whilst keeping the mystery firmly at arms length.
The transition from old to new has to be pointed out to be recognised. Junckers steamed beech flooring runs all the way through from the extended double height living space, to the end bedroom in the old section of the house with natural continuity.
The spaces the house provides are spectacular blank canvases. White walls and gleaming wooden floors challenge the able designer to create something special.
Anne has risen to the challenge. The interior is what you would expect of a house that promises so much from the outside.
The overriding themes are those of continuity and simplicity. Shaker style woodwork and stainless steel Door handles mirror the style of the kitchen.
Colour is used economically and with impact, an example is the cosy TV room, where red is carefully picked out in an oversized Duresta sofa and matching bucket chair to compliment the imposing black slate gas fire surround.
Camouflaged beside it lies Coaly (so named for obvious reasons) with Dougal, a white west highland terrier, the two family pets as colour coordinated as everything else.
Walking towards the rocky shore at sunset it is striking to turn around and admire the house, the sheer volume of glass and lack of curtains. The huge folding doors in between the thick wooden beams that bring the outside inside. An instant extension.
Then there is the balcony that juts out from the second floor bedroom like the bow of a cruise ship, yearning for the sea slightly out of its reach. Weathering has silvered the cedar cladding giving it a dignified respectability to compliment the ever maturing garden.
A lit rill corners the south east end of the property at a right angle, reminiscent of a roman impluvium, beckoning visitors forth to explore more. Everywhere are little details to be discovered.
It is the attention to these details that aggregate to achieve a shining piece of architecture among the surrounding cabbages.
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