DMK Fine Arts
171/365 - Abandoned farmhouse near Enfiled, Co. Meath, Ireland
These tin roofed farmhouses form a large part of my memory of the Irish countryside. There were a huge amount of them around in my childhood, not so many of them now in the second decade of the 21st century. Of course corrugated roofs would have been much cheaper than slate and must have been much easier to manage than thatch so I wonder if they represent a transition from the traditional thatch to modern slate ones. Back then I didn’t concern myself with these socio-economic questions I just wondered how they could hear themselves above the sound of a heavy Irish rain beating down on their iron roof. Maybe they used sign language.
Either way, in the last 30 years or so the owners felt it wiser to move into a brand new house next door, making sure it looked like it came straight out of 'Bungalow Bliss' a book of ideas and designs for the amateur self-builder from the 1970’s. As is now typical of so many houses out here in the boonies they just look like a copy and paste from this book of anondyne architecture, bland, boring and totally lacking in aesthetics.
In fairness It doesn't look like the corrugated roof was the issue for them. Like most houses up until the 60's or so, foundations were rare, with walls placed straight down on compacted earth. The two big cracks on the right and the one on the left are testament to that. An inbuilt flaw that took decades to come to fruition, leaving a little Titanic out here in the heart of the boglands of Ireland.
171/365 - Abandoned farmhouse near Enfiled, Co. Meath, Ireland
These tin roofed farmhouses form a large part of my memory of the Irish countryside. There were a huge amount of them around in my childhood, not so many of them now in the second decade of the 21st century. Of course corrugated roofs would have been much cheaper than slate and must have been much easier to manage than thatch so I wonder if they represent a transition from the traditional thatch to modern slate ones. Back then I didn’t concern myself with these socio-economic questions I just wondered how they could hear themselves above the sound of a heavy Irish rain beating down on their iron roof. Maybe they used sign language.
Either way, in the last 30 years or so the owners felt it wiser to move into a brand new house next door, making sure it looked like it came straight out of 'Bungalow Bliss' a book of ideas and designs for the amateur self-builder from the 1970’s. As is now typical of so many houses out here in the boonies they just look like a copy and paste from this book of anondyne architecture, bland, boring and totally lacking in aesthetics.
In fairness It doesn't look like the corrugated roof was the issue for them. Like most houses up until the 60's or so, foundations were rare, with walls placed straight down on compacted earth. The two big cracks on the right and the one on the left are testament to that. An inbuilt flaw that took decades to come to fruition, leaving a little Titanic out here in the heart of the boglands of Ireland.