The Ramparts

Kinsale

The overgrown mature gardens of Ramparts House offer the existing site an archaic and romantic nature. It is this ‘romantic’ image that we sought to maintain and augment, without recourse to unnecessary rhetorical gestures.  

Conceptually, the proposal seeks to maintain and reinforce the existing sense of place and charm that is afforded by the site. Given the sensitivity of the site and the significance of Ramparts House, and the Ramparts, we conceived the project as two houses that would ‘bridge over the existing garden walls’, so that proposed development ‘touches the site lightly’. Through numerous models and drawings the concept was developed.

The base of the houses is a series of new ‘stone walls’, that is conceived as an extension of the existing wall geometry. The base contains the bedrooms and ‘servant’ spaces. Window openings within the walls are treated as carved slots, that provide the internal spaces with the character of a fortification. The open ends of the ground floor between the new stone walls are glazed to give aspect onto the adjoining gardens.

The structure of the upper floors is composed of lightweight construction, that will bridge over the existing wall. The structure of the proposal has been developed to allow us to place the house close up against the surrounding walls, without damaging them. 

The bridge element is conceptually conceived as a lightweight ‘tented’ garden pavilion that gentle sits over the garden. Between the ‘heavy’ stone base and the lightweight ‘tented’ roof sits an interstitial zone of timber and glazing. The interstitial is set back from the roof and acts as ‘shadow gap’ between ground and sky. The timber cladding includes vertical louvers which provide privacy screening and responds to the rhythm of the surrounding tree trunks.