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Architect’s Own House (1971 - 1973)
Architect:
Dr. Ronald Tallon, FRIAI
Award Type:
Silver Housing Medal
Location:
Dublin
It is difficult to describe a house in which there are no dicernable hierarchies of function and yet one which provides for all the normal, and some exceptional, requirements of a family of seven.
The structure is only the roof, floor, two gables and a steel frame of Doric boldness. Internal partitions are only screens to define areas and great glass 'walls' running full length on both sides trap volumes determined by a plan of startling simplicity.
The range of materials, timber, steel, glass and painted plaster is meager but they are used in extravagant strokes to create spaces which flow inward and outward. Nothing is static, only the structure is determined.
But it is perhaps the placing of this house in its surroundings - a derelict wood, which initiates the observer’s interest and awareness. And even here the house is not allowed to interrupt the ground which passes beneath but it from within that the landscaping is fully exploited – shrubs, grass, branches, leaves, and sky contribute a fourth dimension of movement, colour and distance.
It is this humility towards nature coupled with an inborn human sense of harmony which has enabled Ronald Tallon to create an outstanding contribution to architecture in Ireland