Sustainable Home Design
Self Build Home, Northern Ireland
It’s probably true to say that once an architect has built their own home, they can only then begin to understand some of the significant challenges clients face in the architectural process. They must be realistic about how their family lifestyle will ‘fit’ into the building they create.
As an architect and artist respectively, Murray and Sara Bell merged their interests to produce a living home for their family which also met Sara’s requirements as a working sculptor and painter. The house, and site, reflect the overarching theme that houses should fit with their surroundings.
Dwellings should have a sense of place – a genius loci – and should therefore be timeless, but of their time.
As an ecologist, and sensitive to the materials used in his designs, Murray shies away from building ostentatious modernist mansions as the ideology of these conflicts with sensitivity, suitability and efficiency. However, it is still possible to achieve dynamic, valuable and handsome architecture without going over the top.
