A hillside residential development near Lisburn that takes the traditional hill town, houses stepping with the slope, arranged around shared spaces, and applies it to how people live now.
Client: Private
Location: Lisburn, Northern Ireland
Local Authority: Lisburn
Plot Type: Rural
Project Type: Residential – Multi-Unit
Internal Area (GIA): 150 sqm per unit
The project sits in the rolling countryside of Northern Ireland and comprises three prototype houses, each designed to work with the site's natural topography rather than against it. The layout is grounded in the practical constraints first: realistic road gradients, and cut-and-fill kept to a minimum, so the development sits into the existing terrain instead of re-engineering it.
Each house is composed of three modules: a home office with garage, a central living block holding the kitchen and bathrooms, and a private sleeping wing. The modules shift and rotate in response to the contours, and it is this movement that generates the scheme's sequence of courtyards, some private, some shared, giving every home secluded outdoor space while keeping a sense of community between neighbours.
The ambition runs beyond the individual houses. The generous ground between the prototypes is given over to new forested habitat, so the development raises the ecological value of the site rather than eroding it, and the woodland becomes the everyday backdrop to the homes. It is an argument, in built form, that suburban development can be considerably better than the standard estate model.
The houses are orientated with carefully framed views to the south, which does two jobs at once: it maximises passive solar gain, cutting the energy each home needs, and it opens long views towards the Mourne Mountains. Energy performance and the quality of the outlook come from the same decision, which is how it should be.stainable kitchen and living interior at Clogher Forest Village by RISE Design Studio, with exposed timber rafters, concrete walls, full-height glazing and countryside views.
