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ONE OF IRELAND’S most familiar faces thanks to her role on Home of the Year, architect Amanda Bone established her award-winning architectural practice in 2000. Amanda has also worked with DTA Architects since 2020, is a lecturer at TU Dublin and is a company member of the Irish Architectural Archive. Amanda lives in Bray, Co. Wicklow with her architect husband Niall Rowan. She speaks to Ruth O’Connor about architecture, art and things to consider if you’re planning a home project this year.
What is your favourite room in your home?
It might surprise people to hear that my favourite room is actually my rear garden. We live in a 1990s bungalow and the garden faces east, south and west. When we were redesigning the house it made more sense to completely refurbish it rather than to simply replace the kitchen and bathroom. We ended up keeping the front wall and one gable wall and then we looked at the design with a view to connecting inside and outside through the layout and materials.
One of the great things about a bungalow is that almost every room can connect to the outside, so we looked at having floor to ceiling glazing and a flush or seamless threshold condition where you can open the door and walk outside. The same brick, Ibstock Birtley Olde English, is used internally and externally in that it runs out of the office and into the garden to form raised beds, various storage units and the terrace. Everything is interconnected – as though a line is drawn between the house and garden without the pencil being lifted.
I much prefer greenery over flowers and I like plants which are relaxed and loose in contrast to the rigidity of the brick. The garden has views over Bray Head, is completely private and gets lovely light. When it comes to buildings, as architects we know what we are doing, but we have learnt that a garden is a work in progress. I love being able to open my office door and walk straight out onto the grass. The house is painted white internally but the connection with the outside means that there is constant changing colour.
How does this reflect your personal taste or style?
We designed the house and garden to reflect what we are interested in. I am interested in minimal and restrained design because it impacts how spacious a building feels. When designing a space I consider the building and the brief and then it’s about those two factors meeting in the middle. Even though you might be interested in x,y,z it might not suit the type of house you’re in.
This house is a modern bungalow built in the nineties. When we bought it, it wasn’t making the most of the site in terms of the orientation or the view, so we looked at opening it up, rationalising the layout and providing an open plan living area but with a separate living room.
It reflects us in terms of the style of architecture we’re interested in but also in that it makes the most of the site. It’s a modest sized home but we’ve made the most of the space we have by keeping the material palette limited – using white paint and a white limed oak floor throughout for continuity. We collect art, and see furniture as art, so this approach allows our pieces to sit well together.
How would you describe your style?
Minimal and restrained. I am a tall person, and I am naturally very claustrophobic, so I can’t relax if I feel a sense of confinement. I don’t like superfluous detail so it’s about how things can recede into the background so that I can then express myself in a way that doesn’t feel ‘too much’.
You love art. How do you incorporate your artworks into the minimal design of your home?
I try to keep a neutral background because it allows me to introduce various elements that work together in my home. This year’s resolution is to get some of our art framed and up on the wall. A favourite piece is by last year’s Home of the Year finalist Ian Humphreys – I really pushed for his house in our deliberations.
When it comes to art, I like to choose different forms that are tactile and textural and I embrace various forms of media rather than paint on canvas only. Some of my favourite international artists include Robert Motherwell, Anthony Gormley, Yoshitomo Nara and Callum Innes. My list of favourite Irish artists includes Brian Maguire, Cecil King, Dorothy Cross, Willie Doherty, Serena Caulfield and Chloe Early, though these lists change as my interests develop and change over time.
Do you travel for inspiration?
All of our holidays are focused around visiting buildings. This year we have settled on some buildings we’d like to see and we will arrange four or five days around going to see them. I am constantly hungry to see what has been built – it could be 20th Century architecture or something current, a monastery or a new build. We are constantly reading, researching and travelling. Buildings we’d like to visit this year include Can Lis by Jorn Utzon in Mallorca, Casa Sabrosa by Sebastiao Moreira in Portugal and Maison La Roche Jeanneret by Le Corbusier in France.
What advice would you give to readers taking on a home project this year?
The first thing is to understand the process as well as the outcome. Problems can arise when people do not fully understand what’s involved or what they are working towards. The second thing is to be patient – to do anything right takes time.
Understand the budget and the timeline. Whether you’re doing a €50,000 project or a €5M project you will have a budget and it’s about pushing for the best quality you can in terms of that budget. In construction you do get what you pay for.
Don’t make the fixtures and furnishings a key concern. Invest your money wisely – if you get the layout and design right and invest in key items such as the floor finish, doors and windows don’t worry about the loose fixtures, furniture and fittings – you can spend your time with those once you move in.
The new series of Home of the Year starts tonight at 8.30pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player and features judges Hugh Wallace and Amanda Bone as well as new judge Siobhan Lam owner of April & the Bear. www.rte.ie. To find out more about Amanda Bone’s architectural work go to www.amandabonearchitects.ie and www.dta.ie.
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