DM Residence
On the hill side across the fields from Castlewellan this project sought to create additional living space around a more sheltered courtyard for a young family.
- DM Residence
- Renovation and Extension
- Castlewellan Co. Down
- Under Construction
The brief also required a renovation of the existing house restoring its openings finishes and proportions back to its original more vernacular appearance. Two contemporary extensions complete the courtyard enclosure suggested by the original buildings. The collection of buildings each of their own era and texture huddle together politely providing a bright shelter from the Mourne Mountain weather.
For this small church, the conversion to a domestic function seemed natural and uncontentious. The scale of the original church building was domestic and the decoration modest. The new function also modest and singular in purpose in that it is for a new family or people to live together in “under one roof”. Tattykeeran Church may have become simply 44 Tattykeeran Road but it is still there for those who were baptised or married in it to see and we hope it has been presented in such a way that the sensibilities of those people and the significance of those community and life events are not slighted but preserved. Certainly the comments and words from many interested visitors and parishoners to the project during construction (among them the Sunday school teacher, the sextons son) would indicate that it has been a success in this respect. A further gesture and nod of approval has come from vestry committee of the surviving Colebrooke Estate church who have reintrusted us with the original bell (it is suitably minus the clapper) made in Murphys Foundry in Dublin.
