Eco-Village life
Future resident Deidre O?Leary and her husband, actor Andrew Lummis, with their children, Ciara, 8, and Sadbh, 3 on the site where their eco-home will be built. Above left: Maírín Johnston, author of Around the Banks of Pimlico, who will move to The Village. 'It has a closeness and community spirit,' she says
Friday May 09 2008
Want to get away from the rat race, the noise, the heat, the cold, the dizzying utility bills? Do you have financial resources and a desire for quiet adventure? Would you like to be part of a self-reliant community? Then a residence in The Village, Cloughjordan, North County Tipperary, might be the perfect place for you.
Construction work on Ireland's first "eco-village" is scheduled to begin this summer. When completed, The Village will consist of 130 dwellings of apartments, semi-detached and detached houses. There will also be shops, playgrounds and communal facilities, with the use of the 67-acre site being divided equally for housing, farmland and woodland.
"The infrastructure has just been completed and the first applications for full planning permission for homes have been lodged," explains Dave Flannery, who handles sales and marketing for Sustainable Projects Ireland (SPI), the company behind the project.
The goal is that this will be a sustainable development, built using techniques and materials that have minimal impact on the environment, and those who will be living in The Village are expected to be committed to ecological, social and economic sustainability. The project's resources will include a group heating network of solar panels and a central unit fired by coppiced wood from the development's own woodland and other sustainable wood products.
The Village's own energy grid will source electrical power from a renewable energy provider and
allotments will be available to each household to grow its own vegetables and produce. Among those who have already bought sites for their new homes re professionals, families and pensioners who come from all over Ireland and abroad.
"There's a Canadian, a few English, a couple of French and a Belgian," explains Annemarie Nugent of SPI.
Maírín Johnston, author of Around the Banks of Pimlico, sold her cottage near Dublin's Clanbrassil Street to move to The Village.
"My father's family were weavers who came over from Yorkshire in 1680 to settle in Pimlico. My mother's people moved there from Gort around the time of the famine in the 1850s so I grew up in Pimlico which, at the time, was like a village, where you knew everybody and life was community-focused," she recalls.
At the moment Máirín is living in rented accommodation in Cloughjordan town, while she waits for her Village residence to be built.
"When I moved down here I felt it was as if I'd never left the old Pimlico, I felt that same closeness and community spirit," Máirín says.
"I had been living in a little cottage in a quiet street off Clanbrassil Street but over the years the area had changed, with increasing noise and fewer neighbours of my generation. When my daughter was a student in Thurles, she became involved in The Village, and persuaded me to have a look. I liked what I saw and thought the community was a good idea," she says.
Maírín will be moving into a spacious top-floor apartment in one of the three-storey buildings in The Village Crescent. Construction of the timber-frame building is set to commence in September and Maírín is looking forward to the prospect.
"My two bedroom apartment will be larger than my old cottage -- with kitchen, living room, study and dining room -- and I'll even have an allotment where I can grow vegetables," she says.
For musician Deidre O'Leary and her husband, actor Andrew Lummis, buying a site in The Village has fulfilled a long-term aspiration.
"We wanted to build an eco-friendly house and had been looking for a site for some time, but we realised it wouldn't be practical to live in the middle of nowhere. It is important for us and for our kids -- eight-year-old Ciara and three-year-old Sadbh -- that we are able to live the lifestyle surrounded by others who are like-minded," says Deidre.
Their dream home will be a modest build, with the three-bedroom semi-detached structure measuring 90sqm. The house will be open-plan downstairs with lots of window seats.
The top floor will be split-level and the house will have a cottage feel because of the thick walls and the many curves that feature in the design.
"The materials are coming from the immediate surroundings," explains Deidre. "The walls will be three-feet thick and will therefore be very high in thermal mass. The roof will be covered in sod."
Deidre continues: "It's exciting to think that we'll be living in a house we designed ourselves, where the walls aren't plasterboard. I'm also looking forward to planting our own apple trees and vegetables and watching them grow."
Even though the first dwelling has yet to be built, a sense of community is evident. Many site-owners are already participating in the decision-making process of the project through town meetings, and most are co-ordinating building works with their neighbours in order to reduce construction costs.
"We all have the same architect and builder," says Maírín about the terrace of apartment buildings in the crescent. In Deidre O'Leary's case, the family is using the same builder as two neighbours.
"We hope to source roofing and windows and get plumbing work done as part of the larger community here in the Village," she explains.
The Village is connected to the main street of Cloughjordan by a cobbled street. Like Maírín Johnston and Deidre O'Leary, many future Village residents are renting accommodation in Cloughjordan in order to get to know their neighbours in both the Village and Cloughjordan itself. This integration is important to Deidre.
"I see myself becoming a community musician, working in all different areas of the community," she explains.
Annemarie Nugent agrees: "Integration with the local community is very important because we need to rely on each other."
Maírín, a seasoned mixer, is by now well integrated. "I think I've joined every organisation in Cloughjordan-- except the Boy Scouts," she jokes.
