The project involved a collaboration with Landscape Designer Gerard Mullen, with the architectural element formulated as a response to the proposed garden design. This project brief provided for a contemplative modern outdoor living space set against the backdrop of a rural landscape. The garden design promotes an appreciation for our native wild habitats, harnessing the beauty of the Irish landscape and evolving it into a modern peaceful outdoor space. The design explores a large rural site containing a wetland wild habitat near the Comeragh Mountains in County Waterford. The architectural response juxtaposes the crisp minimalist architectural form of the pavilion with the rustic tones of the landscape and the crumbling stone structures. The pavilion's metal finish sparkles as a centre point within the garden, yet is subsumed into the garden due to its reflective nature, blurring the lines between garden and structure. The dry stone walling of the pavilion acts as a physical link between new and old, offering both support to the pavilion and allowing the rainwater from the pavilion to find its way to the weir and wetland across its stones. Both the planting and materials were largely sourced locally in County Waterford. The pavilion is clad with local native timber cladding, from a mature Cupresses macrocarpa (Monterey cypress) felled from Lismore Castle Estate.
The project was sponsored by the Waterford Harvest Festival and the Grow Project, amongst many others who gave generously of their time and resources, and as such the project was completed on a minimal budget. The project was used as a vehicle to provide valuable practical experience to students of the Grow Project, which is a Ferrybank Horticulture Local Training Initiative, a community-based programme run in the Ferrybank area of Waterford for unemployed people and which offers a QQI Level 5 certificate. The students were heavily involved in all elements of the build, with specialist trades and craftsmen being utilised where appropriate. The project received a Gold Medal at the Bloom Festival and was awarded the Best Garden in Category and Designers' Favourite award and has been published in the RIAI Journal, Architecture Ireland.
The garden design promotes an appreciation for our native wild habitats, harnessing the beauty of the Irish landscape and evolving it into a modern peaceful outdoor space.
