Two millennia ago the Romans gazed across the Irish Channel from Britannia, to a land they called Hibernia, meaning ‘Land of Winter’.  The Irish winters are indeed long, but spring paints vibrant colours on a patch quilt landscape, the setting for Meadow Dance.

A wooden box waltzes over a meadow, carried on its stone partner to catch views of the bog beyond - a rich marshland crisscrossed with glimmering streams. As captured in the movie animation, the wood and stone boxes braid together to make a double height parlor space catching sunshine from the south.

Ireland has stone building in its blood.  This is a house inspired by the surrounding fields of dry stone walls. These manmade striations are a visible record of time.  Local farmers used what was available, and through skills passed down through generations, stone was gathered from ploughed land and local quarries to demarcate family holdings, subdividing again and again over time.

A little further south is Lough Gur - a lake with a necklace of 5,000 year old Neolithic archeology, including a great stone circle. The patterns and colours of the local stone are captivating, and the house brings together flags of yellow sandstone, anchored by large blocks of grey limestone. Reclaimed oak railway sleepers create an island in the meadow, lifting people slightly above the long grass.