Little Barren is a four-bedroom detached single family home on a 0.25 acre suburban site on Leafy Lane, in the leafy suburb of Moneygurney, Cork City,

MiDRISE designed the spacious family home to planning permission, granted in 2023. We also masterplanned the surrounding development of six houses, a verdant cul-de-sac christened ‘Leafy Lane’ after the equestrian stables and livery yard that formerly occupied the site.

The site is situated at the edge of the city where it meets the agricultural green belt, and the architectural aesthetic takes cues from traditional Irish vernacular farmyards. The design approach plays with simple geometric forms and proportion and is expressed as three separate buildings connected via a glazed link atrium. Natural local limestone, crisp white render and red standing seam metal roof finishes adopt the vernacular material palette in a crisp modern form.

Internally it is also playful in section, with entry on the half-landing leading to a stepped floor plan ‘upside-down’ house. The master bedroom suite on the lower ground floor level provides a double shower ensuite and generous walk-in wardrobe. Three further ensuite bedrooms across the hall feature built in storage and desk space, and all four bedrooms enjoy patio doors leading out onto an east facing morning terrace.

Open plan living / kitchen / dining spaces on the first floor benefit from airy vaulted ceilings beneath the 45° pitched roof, the elevated position giving distant views east over the Garryduff woodland valley. A home office overlooks the entrance driveway from an elevated position, and the snug with wood burning stove features a corner window with distant north-eastern views towards Lough Mahon.

A wide and shallow driveway accommodates 5 car spaces efficiently and gives access to a single car garage / workshop. The house is arranged to position the gardens on the east and west of the house, catching both morning and evening sunlight so that they can be enjoyed throughout the day and into the evening. A south facing monopitch roof above the workshop is set up to host a large solar PV array at the optimum orientation and angle, which when combined with nZEB construction principles will make this a highly energy efficient and cozy new-build family home.

MiDRISE designed the spacious family home to planning permission, granted in 2023. We also masterplanned the surrounding development of six houses, a verdant cul-de-sac christened ‘Leafy Lane’ after the equestrian stables and livery yard that formerly occupied the site