{"id":4224,"date":"2014-01-13T16:07:44","date_gmt":"2014-01-13T16:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markstephensarchitects.com\/?p=4224"},"modified":"2014-01-13T16:07:44","modified_gmt":"2014-01-13T16:07:44","slug":"who-are-you-post-1-where-are-you-from-cornwall-mayo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markstephensarchitects.com\/who-are-you-post-1-where-are-you-from-cornwall-mayo\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are you? Post #1 Where are you from? #Cornwall #Mayo"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the first in a week of blog posts following on from my blogging tip of A blog post a day on a specific subject<\/em>.<\/p>\n

For those not completely up to speed the topic is a big one and is probably the most important of all – Who are you<\/em>?<\/p>\n

To see the introduction to this post CLICK HERE…<\/a><\/p>\n

So this first ‘Official’ post on this subject deals with Where are you from?<\/em>. Obviously I don’t know who you (the reader) are (I’d love for you to tell me via a comment however), so the thrust of this piece tells you about where I am from and how this has influenced my life and where I am now…<\/p>\n

I’m not Irish.<\/p>\n

There, I’ve said it. As far as I know there’s probably very little Irish blood in my body. I am however entitled (via marriage) to Irish citizenship and an Irish passport; I’ve lived and worked in County Mayo for over 10 years now and have built a West of Ireland architectural practice specialising in understanding and designing architecture appropriate for the West of Ireland.<\/p>\n

But where did this come from? Where did my understanding of the strong yet simple forms of Irish vernacular originate. And back to the question – where exactly am I from and in the words of Alex Haley what are my Roots?<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, I’ve researched my family tree back to the 1600’s and my fathers family originally came the Channel Islands (via Henley on Thames) as Navy sea-men; my father was born in Guernsey and was evacuated to Bodmin, Cornwall in 1938 prior to the war breaking out. My mothers family were entirely from Cornwall.<\/p>\n

Now, although I wasn’t born in Cornwall (London), I spent a lot of time down there; every holiday: Christmas, Easter and Summer and including every half term – even going to primary school there for a while.<\/p>\n

Now here comes the interesting bit; let’s look at the rural, vernacular architecture of Cornwall and compare it to Mayo:<\/p>\n

1. The landscape is very similar<\/p>\n

2. The indigenous architecture is very similar; strong, simple forms built in natural materials that were at hand.<\/p>\n

The comparison goes further, let’s look at the County Council Design Guides for North Cornwall and Mayo:<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE FOR THE NORTH CORNWALL HOUSES DESIGN GUIDE<\/a><\/p>\n

CLICK HERE FOR THE MAYO HOUSES DESIGN GUIDE<\/a><\/p>\n

They are practically identical:<\/p>\n

Cornwall: “Traditionally many houses were only one room deep, and this generated a narrow rectangular form which was extended by lean-to or sequential additions (generating additive forms). Aim to restrict spans and work on additive principles. Avoid big boxy near-square plan forms”<\/em><\/p>\n

Mayo: “The traditional Irish vernacular house or cottage was normally one room deep. If a building becomes more than 2 rooms deep, the roof span is consequently doubled or tripled in size and the apex is raised substantially…break into several smaller forms rather than one large form…”<\/em><\/p>\n

The similarities are endless and I suggest anyone interested in Mayo or Cornish vernacular architecture and how to design in an appropriate way to read the documents, even down to ‘Use gables sparingly’<\/em> which was featured in one of my recent blog posts on protruding front gables<\/a>. Actually the diagrams illustrated in both design guides of right and wrong ways to design are remarkably similar. I would be very surprised if either design guide ‘copied’ the other (who cares if they did if it means better architecture); the reality is that both Cornish and Mayo vernacular architecture are very similar; they were built by working men, using their hands with the local materials such as stone and slate that were at hand. I suspect both areas would also have used shipwrecks for the timber on their roofs.<\/p>\n

So what am I?<\/p>\n

A Londoner?<\/p>\n

Cornish?<\/p>\n

From the Channel Islands?<\/p>\n

A Mayo man?<\/p>\n

I asked this question a while back and the best answer I got back was the one I am going with – I am Celtic.<\/p>\n

Comments welcome…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the first in a week of blog posts following on from my blogging tip of A blog post a day on a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[5,15,17,33,37,40,53,59,62,64,73,78,79,80,81,85,94,95,97,98,117],"tags":[217,441,488,673,703,704,748,845,883,1100,1388],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nWho are you? 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