Why President's private house should have been designed by professional architect

Most people in Ireland will never find themselves commissioning a professional architect to design anything, least of all their own homes. Just as the vast majority buy ready-to-wear clothes, rather than go to a fashion designer or bespoke tailor, they also settle for "off-the-peg" housing, whether new or secondhand.

Ordinary people are "scared" of architects, their ideas and their scale of fees. For those planning to build the house of their dreams in the countryside, it seems so much safer and more convenient to choose a design from pattern books such as Bungalow Bliss, pay for the set of plans - and then hire a building contractor.

They don't feel capable of communicating with an architect, or even of drawing up a brief spelling out what "they" want as endusers. They are afraid of being bamboozled by someone who seems to talk in a different language and, most of all, they fear being used as guinea-pigs for radical ideas that might not work.

The President, Mrs McAleese, and her dentist husband, Martin, did not feel the need to engage a professionally-qualified architect to design the lakeside home they are planning to build in Co Roscommon.

They had been designing it in their minds for a long time and knew exactly what they wanted, a spokeswoman explained.

The "modest, understated family home" is planned for a 4.7-acre site which the couple acquired recently in the townland of Kilmacarril, overlooking Lough Eidin, some three miles from Carrick-on-Shannon. Its design is based on a traditional country farmhouse near Rostrevor in Co Down, owned by the President's aunt.

Since the McAleeses already had this fixed idea in their heads of the sort of house they wanted to build, they felt there was no need for the "creative input" that might have been provided by an architect. So they entrusted the task of drawing up the plans to C Gray and Associates, a busy firm of building consultants based in Carrick.

As reported in The Irish Times, the President's spokeswoman, Eileen Gleeson, of FCC Communications, emphasised that they had "nothing against architects". They had given the commission to Conor Gray because he had previously advised them on another matter and also had a great deal of local knowledge. Earlier this month, Mr Gray freely acknowledged that he is not a professionally-qualified architect, although he did point out that he holds a BSc in building surveying and employs a number of architectural technicians. "Our brief was planning and we basically designed what they wanted," he said.

Roscommon County Council was due to make a decision earlier this week on the planning application, lodged on June 22nd by Mr McAleese, who gave Arus an Uachtarain as his address. By agreement with the applicants, the date has been deferred by a month largely due to short-staffing and the sheer volume of work.

Like other rural authorities, Roscommon has a policy of discouraging "one-off" housing in scenic locations. But it is coming under increasing pressure because of the blanket tax incentive scheme for development in the Upper Shannon region, under which anyone building a new house can write off half the capital cost.

The proposed McAleese home is a substantial two-storey house facing south-west towards Lough Eidin, a lake on the Shannon system but not on its navigation.

At 2,200 sq ft, it is just below the maximum qualifying size for owner-occupier tax incentives under the Upper Shannon rural renewal scheme.

Behind the house single-storey outbuildings with a floor area of 1,100 sq ft will provide garage space for at least two cars as well as a suite of utility and/or storage rooms ancillary to the main dwelling. There is also a separate parking area for guests, accommodating five cars. The stone-faced front elevation, it has to be said, is quite dull. Windows are narrow rather than panoramic and seem both bland and ill-proportioned.

Despite the grandeur implied by its crudely simplified fanlight, the front door is too small and comes with an inset "Georgian-style" fanlight, of a type that is all too common. Interior features include a full-length livingroom on one side of the entrance hall, with an asymmetrical fireplace and French doors leading to a patio, and a centrally-positioned grand staircase leading to the first floor, which will have four bedrooms and a bathroom. The staircase might have been better placed against a wall.

ACCORDING to the site plan submitted to Roscommon County Council, boundaries will be screened by augmenting hedgerows with native deciduous trees, such as ash, beech and oak, while shrubs such as escallonia will be planted around a lawn to the front. The plan also includes a timber-decked jetty and boat mooring.

Major excavations will be required to produce level ground on the sloping site and the stone-faced retaining wall will partially enclose a paved courtyard to the rear of the house and its outbuildings.

Because of the lakeside location, a sewage treatment unit incorporating phosphate removal is being provided rather than a septic tank.

The proposed development is located some distance from a public road and will therefore not be visible to passers-by. It is below the skyline and hidden from the lake "because the President and her husband are interested in privacy and they're not building this as a holiday home but as a permanent home for the future," according to Eileen Gleeson.

Commenting on the fact that the house had not been designed by an architect, Mr John Graby, director of the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland, was quite restrained. He noted, not for the first time, that even the title "architect" was still not legally protected, so people were legitimately entitled to choose whom they liked.

But in a scenic location, he felt it would have been "more appropriate to use the skills of an architect", especially in view of the State's developing policy on architecture.

"As she is the first citizen, while she can of course do as she pleases, consideration might have been given to leading by example in relation to the design of this house."

In May 1997, the Government agreed a policy statement on architecture which, among other things, committed the State to promote high standards of design and construction, to foster a demand for high-quality architecture in the community as a whole, to encourage innovation and to conserve the architectural heritage.

That being said, there is no guarantee that employing a qualified architect will necessarily produce a better building; as in any other profession, there are as many bad architects as good ones.

However, most of them would bring an element of added value to the design of a new house or even a relatively simple domestic extension.

The McAleeses own a number of houses and apartments in the North, all of which are let, but do not have a villa in Spain, contrary to some media reports.

The President's predecessor, Mrs Mary Robinson, also has a country house - Massbrook, on 100 acres fronting Lough Conn in Co Mayo - which was built in the 19th century.