Elle Gordon chats to architect and Home of the Year judge Hugh Wallace about his latest renovation project – his own home –sustainability and why starting again is exciting.
As I walk down Dublin's Camden Street with Hugh Wallace, he greets people in the easy way of someone in his home neighbourhood. "I owe you a fiver" he says to one passerby, and they both laugh. On we go until we find what he is looking for, a quiet café tucked away off the busy city centre street, just a stone’s throw from the office of his architecture firm Douglas Wallace. He is telling me about his current project, perhaps his most important, renovating the city centre house that he and his partner Martin Corbett soon plan to call home.
"This is the fifth house for Martin and myself. We are sort of nomadic. We started off renting a house in Clonskeagh. Then I did a development in George’s Street, and we bought an apartment there which was amazing. It overlooked Dublin Castle and it was amazing to live right in the centre of town.
"In those days, Martin and myself were little party animals so it was the perfect location. Martin is a hairdresser and worked on Stephen’s Green so he and the gang would go to Hogan’s pub for drinks. I’d be making dinner and I could look out the window and see him. In those days, there was no telephones, so I used to go down in my furry slippers, over to Hogan’s, and say, 'Your dinner is on the table, c’mon.’"
Being nomadic sorts, that was not the final stop? "Oh no. We moved to Ranelagh, but we had an east-facing garden there and I couldn’t cope. When we would get home in the evening, there was no sun. So, we sold that, and we rented a house just off Synge Street for a time, and then we moved to McMahon Street and from there back to Ranelagh. Then we moved to where we are now, which is right back in the centre of town. Right now, we are renting the property next door while we renovate our house."
I wonder if it is fun to see this latest house evolve, perhaps into their forever home? "It hasn’t evolved yet. All we have done so far is the clean-out and the demolition. We had an issue in that the house was the centre-point for all the cables on the street. So, all the electrical wires came to our house, and from there they got distributed – all the telephone wires, all the public lighting – so it has taken ten months to get all that moved. The scaffolding goes up on the house at the end of this month and then we get into it and we can get on with it."
Sounds like a challenge, but surely, he thrives off that. Is it easier given this is his area of expertise?
"It is very difficult as an architect to do your own house. Martin puts manners on me. It is a very simple house at the end of the day. It is a two-up, two-down cottage with a west-facing garden, which is the dream. You can run around naked in the garden, and no one can see. You get all the sunlight, and it is fabulous. There is no noise. There are trees out the back of where we are, so we have the birds, the cats and the local fox, and most importantly, there is a real sense of community.
"Some of the neighbouring families are there for four and five generations and they are all very happy that Martin and I are living there. We are not doing up the house to rent but to live there and that makes a huge difference because you become part of the community. There is no noise in the evenings. It is just amazing."
Hugh and his partner adore city living, it seems. "I don’t need a car," he explains. "I have public transport. I go out the door and I have got all the shops. I just think it is so healthy. I think there is a lot to be said for that, but I think there is a reluctance and a resistance for people to live long-term in the city and that is a shame. You need a diversity in population and ages to really make a city work, to really have it vibrant. You need the old and the new. That mix is very important. That is why Martin and I are very lucky because we have moved into that mix. It is our oasis."
He is aware, however, of the problems of vacant property all over the city, something that the pandemic by the pandemic exacerbated. "That shouldn’t happen but it has been allowed to happen. Unfortunately, regulations make it very difficult to do up buildings in terms of cost. We have archaic ownership laws, even in terms of letting an apartment. You should be able to let an apartment for five, 10 or 15 years to somebody, but we can’t do that in this country.
"We give people rolling contracts of one year, which is of no use to anybody because you can’t put up a painting. It is not fair on families to live in holding houses. They should have certainty for at least ten years and certainty in relation to the rent. I think the continental system is much better, where people rent apartments for 15 or 20 years, but they’re responsible for the dishwasher and the washing machine because it is their home."
Hugh is also passionate about being as sustainable as possible in our homes." Our new house is G-rated right now, so it is down at the very bottom in terms of insulation. When we are finished, it will be a B2-rated home and because we will have got to that standard, it will mean we can use an air-to-water heating system. In my opinion, that is the way we should all be trying to move. For me, solar energy is also the way to go. That will heat your water for eight months of the year. The entry price point for solar is about €8-10,000, and yes, you don’t get your money back for about eight to 10 years, but the point here is it is about future-proofing. It is a lot more expensive initially, but you need to put it in the context those are changes that will last forever."
As often seen in Home of the Year, Hugh loves a pop of colour in both his choice of shirts and décor, choices that are points of negotiation with Martin. "He is Mr White! Martin and Amanda (Bone, his fellow HOTY judge) should live together. They could live in a white box with a single couch. But with this house, it is Martin in charge. He makes his mind up and that is that. We have got as far as the rooms, where they are, whether there will be an electric fire. We have agreed in principle on the colour of the kitchen and where it is, so we are doing well.
"We have got our bathroom fittings and we have decided on our floors. So, we are doing OK, but the big one will be the off-white paint everywhere. I am hoping I get the front room to express myself in. Funnily enough, we do have the same taste in couches and dining tables and all that. But I am going ‘Please not grey!’
A house move is famously one of life’s most stressful events, but isn’t that what makes it fun too? "Yes, we have made it work for 37 years and so many houses. We got some things right and things wrong. We bring our paintings and our books, and we sell the rest or give it to friends. Starting again; that’s the exciting bit."
