Every man to his taste, says the 16th century proverb. And woman, too, it might have added. Taste and style used to be defined by clothes, but in our increasingly consumption-driven and status-obsessed society, cars and houses are now vying with fashion as vehicles for self expression.

Ireland's new rich see nothing wrong in shelling out vast sums of money for fine old houses and radically re-ordering their interiors, often sacrificing essential elements in the process. Or even of buying a perfectly decent house with a "good address" and then pulling it down to make way for their vulgar-plush dream home.

Lavish kitchens, bathrooms and outdoor decks are all the rage. At the oddly-named Christians store in the Setanta Centre, dot.com types are snapping up such ostentatious trappings as gold-plated tops for Aga cookers, fluted neo-classical columns, Louis XV-style chairs and crystal chandeliers - and they're just for the kitchen.

Ardilea Wood, the Cosgrave Property Group's much-hyped scheme of luxury houses in Clonskeagh, accurately represented the aspirations of this segment of the market. It didn't seem to matter that the 10 houses, done in faux Edwardian style, faced a massive concrete retaining wall or that the selling prices were just as steep.

In the countryside, or what's left of it, Bungalow Blitz has entered a new phase, with larger houses - often two storeys high, with double garages for the "4x4s" - scattering across the landscape. And bungalow-builders in the Upper Shannon region can even cash in on tax incentives for houses of up to 210 sq m. (2,260 sq ft).

Against this backdrop, Millers Weir near Newbridge, Co Kildare, is quite a brave venture. The objective was to create an architect-designed alternative to the patternbook approach so evident in both rural and suburban areas. It was based on the idea that there must be a market for exceptionally spacious contemporary homes.

In a beautiful setting by the River Liffey, virtually within sight of Tony O'Reilly's mansion at Castlemartin, P&P Construction is building 10 very large designer bungalows, each with an incredible 344 square m.(3,700 sq ft) of floorspace. On a pound per square foot basis, the price of £550,000 is also quite reasonable.

Designed by Dublin-based Warren Architecture, the houses at Millers Weir are inspired by Irish vernacular typology, reinterpreted in a modern idiom without resorting to pastiche. While the use of gables is quite traditional, the interior - arranged around a glazed courtyard - attempts to redefine preconceived ideas about housing.

The central kitchen gable is at the heart of the house, flanked by a bedroom gable and a living gable. The most striking feature of the exterior is a hardwood box projection, which provides a window seat in the livingroom; in the showhouse, unfortunately, the timber has been varnished instead of being left untreated, as intended.

Beside it, there is a retractable red canopy over the main livingroom window, giving the house a festive air. Also quite daring is the use of grey brick to complement the sparkling white render and grey-painted Munster Joinery hardwood double-glazed windows. Steps leading to the front door are done in bush-hammered limestone.

"It's a very simple entrance, not meant to be very grandiose", says Warren's Roisin Murphy, a former co-presenter of Beyond the Hall Door on RTE television (when it was a much better programme). She first made her name with a couple of wacky apartments in Temple Bar.

Warren Architecture, jointly run by Dave Purdue, got the commission for Millers Weir after completing an innovative domestic extension in Sandymount for P&P's Paul Byrne. "He thought it was amazing what you could do with a little bit of design, so when he and his father came to developing this site they felt design would add extra value to the scheme.

"Irish people build like nobody else in Europe and they're spending so much money on houses these days that I really believe that it's our responsibility as builders and architects to push out the boundaries and create interesting houses for people to live in. I also like the notion that we should have models that are at least partly Irish".

Millers Weir is located just south of the tiny village of Athgarvan, now being engulfed by suburban development. Occupying sites of about half-an-acre, the houses are laid out on either side of a driveway that rolls in from the entrance gates - de rigeuer, it would appear, in upmarket housing schemes.

Young beech trees have been planted along the driveway plus 100 oaks as a planning condition. The site, which enjoys access to the river, is fronted by a paddock-style fence, while the houses are made of durable materials, mostly sourced in Ireland, with real slate roofs, cast-iron gutters and a stainless steel balcony on the upper level.

Some visitors - and there were around 1,000 on the first weekend - may be disappointed that there is not much upstairs, apart from a study and a storeroom, with a laminated glass balconied corridor in between. There are also signs of skimping with finishes here as the floor is ordinary deal rather than oak, and laid rather badly, too.

Soaring heights characterise nearly every room. Visitors can see through to the kitchen on entering the showhouse. A "guest bedroom" off the hall has its own latched door, which could serve as an escape hatch. Of course, it has an en suite bathroom, as do two of the remaining four bedrooms, and there is also a smallish main bathroom.

The house has a deep and quite complex plan, revolving around the kitchen which is done in a completely modern style with an island unit, topped by Corian moulded plastic, as its centrepiece. The units are all faced with American light oak and those at the base have cast aluminium handles, designed by Darragh Murphy.

Roisin Murphy and Catherine Giovanelli, another Beyond the Hall Door veteran, were responsible for the interior design, including some of the custom-made furniture and carefully-chosen designer pieces from Odeon and Haus. The double-height livingroom, for example, has a reproduction Eileen Gray lacquered screen.

Five steps lead down to a breakfastroom, which opens onto an east-facing verandah. Beyond it, there is a family room or "den" and, further on, a formal diningroom. All of the flooring at this level is oak, with quite efficient underfloor heating. The glazed courtyard is also a "heat box" and could be used for entertainment.

One of the children's bedrooms has a banana yellow rubber floor and even here the height is incredible. The main bedroom next door has its own sittingroom with a modern mirror-glazed armoire as well as the inevitable en suite. Circulation areas are generous and a sense of space pervades the whole house.

Surprisingly, sales have been quite slow. Perhaps people can't get their heads around the serious amount of design that was invested in these houses, or maybe they just prefer retro vulgar plush, perhaps with a neo-classical portico.