The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI) has announced Field, Stonewall, House by Taylor McCarney Architects as the winner of the Public Choice category at the RIAI Irish Architecture Awards 2021.
The modernist home beat off considerable competition from a shortlist of 39 projects. Entries were received from across Ireland, which included entries from across Ireland as well as internationally in the UK and the Punjab, India.
All of the projects on the shortlist were designed by Registered Architects based in Ireland and completed in 2020.
Only the second house to ever win the Public Choice Award, the design was conceived as a series of parallel field stone walls, that fit within the rural setting in the West of Ireland.
The project considered how such a building could 'grow' from the site and in terms of scale, materials, colour, and landscape. Objects in the home's surrounding landscape, an apple tree, a shed (a childhood memory), and views to the mountain, Coill Chnoc Meadha, are adopted and framed within the house.
Ciaran O'Connor, RIAI President said: "It gives me great pleasure to announce that Taylor McCarney Architect’s project Field, Stonewall, House has been chosen as Ireland’s favourite building. We have all come to realise the importance of good design in our homes over the last 16 months and this project is a prime example of this. People invest significant funds in their homes and this project shows how working with a registered architect can lead to quality outcomes."
The award-winning home appeared on RTÉ's Home of the Year earlier this year with homeowners Tanya Lee Conroy and Noel Conroy as well as their two daughters.
The house is located in Galway and was built on Tanya's parents' land and where her grandmother’s cottage used to be. When it came to the interiors. Tanya and Noel were involved in every design detail of the home.
They couple work in a commercial property development company and project managed their self-build themselves.
The design process started in 2015 with their architects, they broke ground in March 2018 and completed the it in December 2019.
The materials they used are materials you would expect to see in the West of Ireland. They used dry field stone in keeping with the Connaught landscape, and a Corten steel hat which is typical of rusted roofs you see in a traditional farmyard. The house has a timber frame and a flat roof rubber membrane.
The couple both have a passion for mid-century design and good craftmanship. They filled their beautiful home with a lot of bespoke furniture and they wanted their home to be bespoke to their family. The two describe their style as a mix of mid-century and modern design.
Tanya's dad did a lot of work in the house and built their 6.5-metre-tall board mark concrete wall that is an important feature in their home.
Read more: Have a peek inside this incredible modernist home in Galway
