Trends In House Styles
Like fashion, architecture evolves as economies and even monarchs change. In the 1800’s and early 1900’s our architecture was influenced by british monarchs but since then it has changed to a more modern, contemporary and now both local and global in equal measure.
In the 1980’s Irish homes were heavily influenced by America with the advent of American Television. Everything was supersized. In truth it wasn’t an individual style in itself but more of a local building style increased to an absolute minimum of 3000ft2 (for a four bedroom house!) with perhaps a balcony, a few concrete pillars and a pair of eagle clad pillars to complete the look. This trend carried through into the 1990’s with a pairing back of the pillars and birds of prey but with an improvement in general quality but still suffering from a professional design input. The secene was now set for a new entrant into the home building arena, the Architect.
Architects of course specialise in the special design and styling of buildings. For many years architects were the preserve of the rich and otherwise concentrated their efforts and talents in the commercial building arena. However during the naughties Ireland had become a very wealthy country and a new trend had taken-off in self building, Architect Designed Homes. There were two benefits to this new departure, firstly house design improved immeasurable and secondly the ‘snob factor’ was immense.
So what did this mean to the changes in house styles? Well in the naughties architects were given a free rein in house design. Most architects will default to a simple contemporary style given the chance. With our new found wealth, a paired back simple style with grey windows, zinc and cedar pallets emerged as our new found external wardrobe. At this point we had never seen a style like this before in Ireland and it set a new bar for house design.
When the economic crash happened we, as a country, had to re-examine what it meant to be Irish and rebuild both our economy and our dignity in the wake of IMF intervention. As architecture tends to be heavily influenced by economic and cultural shifts, we began to slowly depart from the extremely contemporary style of the early noughties. What first emerged (in the countryside) was a modern but simple take on a rural Irsh cottage. Narrow windows (particularly to the front) and narrow gables (one room deep) for more light in the hall with a departure to a more contemporary living space to the rear. The benefits of this building were that this approach aligned with planners expectations as well as providing a cost effective solution to a young family seeking a smart architect designed home in the countryside.
In the cities, there was a trend towards turning our back on our immediate past (Celtic Tiger Fueled Contemporary Architecture) in favour of looking back to more a more classically influenced era. In this instance Georgian style has made a huge comeback. Sliding sash windows, mouldings over windows and under roof soffits, imposing portico (porches) and elaborately detailed roofs are now in vogue. This style has now taken a firm hold on society. Even humble house extensions are leaning towards the neo-classical and this style will be with us for some time to come.
It is difficult to see what is next on the horizon. We have travelled the full spectrum from paired back contemporary to detailed classical styling and everything in between. Certainly a new trend will arrive, likely a new style adopted initially by the wealthy to set a new trend. Possibly in line with a new global political or economic shift. Well, at least there won’t be another one of those coming at us any time soon..
