Farnham House: Exterior

Farnham House

Hotel, Conference Centre and Spa in Co. Cavan

Project Cost €42m.

Project Description

Farnham Estate, situated in the rolling drumlin and lake landscape of Co. Cavan, comprises over 1,300 acres of woodland with Farnham House and its surrounding designed landscape, at the centre.

After over 400 years of private ownership, the new owner set out to allow the public to discover the splendour and tranquility of Farnham by transforming it into a luxury hotel. The project included the restoration of Farnham House itself and the construction of 150 new guestrooms, a destination wellness centre and a state of the art conference facility.

Farnham House: ExteriorThe principal design consideration was the insertion of large new building elements into the context of the listed building, its outbuildings and the historic landscape, without detracting from the inherent character of the setting and the demesne as a whole. This has been achieved by breaking down the building into smaller constituent elements which have been arranged sensitively around the site, and juxtaposed with the historic building fabric and the established landscape features in order to minimise the impact of the new building, and set up dynamic relationships between new and old.

Farnham House: ExteriorThe main entrance is positioned where the original entrance to the house once stood, looking out towards the principal tree framed landscape vista . The glass roofed entrance lobby physically links Farnham House to the new buildings, yet visually separates it, so that when seen from the approach driveway, the house is maintained as the dominant focal point of the architectural composition. Parking is discreetly set within woodland, screened from view.

The bedroom blocks, placed where previously stood farmyard outbuildings, are unobtrusively tucked into the established oak woodland. Using salvaged stone, render, and zinc roofing, their simple forms are contemporary in detail yet with echoes of the rural vernacular.

The spa has been housed within reconstructed stone cowsheds, with landscaped courtyards being formed between these and the bedroom wings. The spa buildings step down with the topography towards the rear, where render and stone give way to glass to allow the swimming pool to sit into and engage with the tranquil surrounding landscape.

To the front of Farnham House is the formally laid out lawn, with its magnificent historic trees and surrounded by garden walls on three sides. Into this composition, modern elements have been discreetly added; a contemporary barn, to house the restaurant, it's glass and dressed stone façade and slender steel colonnade in counterpoint to the original random rubble stone garden wall; and a long, elegant, steel and glass structure, conceived as a modern day orangerie, housing the pre-conference reception area. This space, running alongside the old garden wall, affords views back across the lawn towards Farnham House, and is a perfect foil to the internal environment of the main function room beyond.

The bulk of the conference centre, clad in untreated cedar boarding, is tucked away behind the garden wall, concealed from view from the lawn. The interior fitting out, inspired by the building's arcadian setting, achieves a sumptuous blend of modernity and tradition, with use of daylighting and framed views linking the interior inextricably with the surrounding landscape.