Mourne House
The owners of a site in the scenic Mourne region of rural Northern Ireland invited HCA to prepare proposals for their new family home.
The land lies at the junction of two country lanes and has outstanding views across the open country towards the peaks of the Mourne Mountains, an ancient landscape famous for being the inspiration for CS Lewis’ Narnia.
After exploring a range of design options with the clients and developing their brief in detail, a simple arrangement of one-and-a-half storey domestic structures was settled upon. The proposed floor plan and orientation of the building are configured to strike a finely tuned balance between achieving privacy for the clients while maximising their views out from the house to the spectacular landscape surrounding the site. The building’s form draws on the traditional vernacular style of this part of Ireland, which is characterised by modest buildings with pitched roofs, rendered or stone walls and carefully positioned window openings. An architectural feature particular to Ulster and Scottish regional domestic forms is the parapeted gable incorporating the chimney structure. This distinctive element was considered especially fitting for the new building and is a reference to the old schoolhouse which previously occupied the site and followed this tradition. In keeping with the clients’ wish for a simple and unassuming building, instilled with a sense of belonging to the local landscape, a spare material palette was favoured: rough cast lime-rendered walls, corrugated metal roof and metal-framed casement windows.
HCA and the clients engaged with the local planning authority at an early stage of the design process and, while inspired by the. regional built heritage, were also diligent in following the design principles advocated by the local authority’s design guidance publications. In this way we established a design proposal that sets a high-quality precedent for local new-build domestic architecture and demonstrates what can be achieved through the pursuit of design excellence and the adoption of a collaborative approach.
Matters of biodiversity and conservation of the site’s native flora and fauna were important considerations that needed to be fully incorporated into the design proposals. Dedicated landscaping, planting, and biodiversity reports were duly prepared by specialist consultants in support of the planning application and were carefully coordinated with the architectural scheme to produce a coherent and integrated design proposal.
Planning permission was granted by Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council in March 2025 and HCA are currently working with the clients to prepare for work to start on site later this year.