Eclectic eco home has a good vibe

There's a hot tub and a meditation room in a 'sacred' house on 7.3 acres, says Fiona Tyrrell

An extraordinary house on the outskirts of Portlaoise - built using environmentally-sensitive material - will turn the heads of buyers looking for a rural sanctuary.

You'll be hard pressed to find a right angle or straight line in Taliesin, the remarkable home of Irish architect Michael Rice who believes in a holistic approach to designing and building homes.

Portlaoise agent RBL Estates has set an asking price of €1.25 million for the house, which won a regional award for original barn conversion from the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland in 1994.

This initial conversion of a 210-year-old barn has been significantly added to in the last 12 years. As the family expanded so did the house. Now spread over 557sq m (6,000sq ft) of living space, the stone and wooden house is an unusual series of interconnected buildings with four bedrooms, a hot tub room, a conservatory, a large play room currently used for home schooling, a self-contained home office, a guest apartment and a seminar/gathering space with adjoining meditation room.

The entire building complex has been built using the holistic principles of natural design and the harmonic ratio of phi (the "golden ratio" which is present in many natural phenomenons from the structure of a seashell to the dimensions of the human body).

Materials used include third-hand timber for the flooring, low- allergy finishes and organic paint. Insulation is from sheep's wool and isofloc (mulched up newspapers). It has a sod roof at one end and a sedum roof at the other. Roof tiles made from recycled rubber are used elsewhere. The house also has an aero thermal heating system.

Not one for the traditional front door/back door model, there are 13 entrances to the house, says Rice. We make our way into the main living quarters via a large courtyard with paving and gravel in the shape of a Celtic triple knot.

Echoing its stone barn past, the main living areas feel welcoming. Wood and stone predominate with lots of light from many windows.

As one of the first sections built by Rice, the pretty blue and pine kitchen with adjoining dining area is small compared to the rest of the house. New owners may be tempted by an egg-shaped kitchen extension designed by Rice, which already has planning permission.

Off the kitchen there is a series of rooms, including a utility, small study and storage rooms. There is also a bright hot tub room with a pretty mosaic on the wall and floor designed by his wife, Heather. Upstairs, off a long bright corridor, are three of the four bedrooms.

The main bedroom has a loft-style storage area and a children's sleeping alcove. A second double room is en suite and has a terraced area giving fantastic views over woodlands and rolling countryside. A twin bedroom has a wooden raised bed system.

Downstairs, a long livingroom has chunky stonewalls and a large stone hearth. It leads to a pretty conservatory teaming with greenery.

A later addition to the house is a building called Namaste. This high-ceiling light-filled gathering space can cater for up to 40 people.

It's here that Rice's interest in sacred architecture really comes to the fore. Sacred is a word that is very heavily marketed and packaged, says Rice. Sacred architecture is not about designing churches, it's about sustainability, he says. Put simply, it's designing a building "with a good vibe".

Far from being "hit and miss" or "coffee table book feng shui", Rice insists there is a science behind sacred architecture that is both teachable and practical. Attention is paid to light, sound, movement, energy and feelings to make a harmonious space with no interferences or distractions.

Whether it's the life-giving spiral pattern on the wooden floor, the rose quartz embedded in the foundation or the floods of natural light through the sacred design windows - this room is truly inspiring.

An adjoining domed meditation room in a beehive shape has a touch of magic about it. Stand in the centre and the natural acoustics of the room produce a phenomenal echo effect on anything uttered, but only for the ears of the person in the centre. The room also proved the perfect place for a birthing pool for two of the Rice's children.

The last addition to the house is a cedar-clad office and home school space. The office is accessed from the outside via a wooden spiral staircase and a statue of the great philosopher Winnie the Pooh and a stone relief of Michelangelo's divine spark. Designed according to the principals of feng shui, the room features five different-coloured arched alcoves and a skylight. Downstairs is the large home school area with lots of storage. Off this is the fourth bedroom. The guest apartment is also contained in this section.

Set on 7.3 acres of unspoiled woodlands in the heart of the midlands, the house is built in empathy with its surroundings. It is approached via a beech driveway over a stone bridge and has a beautiful stone courtyard, an orchard, vegetable patch, labyrinth, a stream and an unexplored two acres devoted to the fairies.

It's hard to believe, given the great sense of seclusion at Taliesin, that the house is located just off the main Portlaoise-Tullamore road. Portlaoise is a few minutes away and Dublin city an hour by car.

Moving on to other pastures, the Rice family is heading for the sloping hills of the Slieve Blooms, where Michael is designing a new home shaped like a nest full of eggs.