A new Irish feature film, ‘Herself’, tells the story of a single mother in Dublin who has to literally and figuratively rebuild her life when she faces a housing problem. Sandra, played by Clare Dunne finds herself building her own timber home, and now the plans for the self-build have been made free for anyone to download.
Whether you’re planning your own Grand Design, or simply wanting to live a more sustainable, off-grid life, self build homes are gaining popularity. Building your own home might bring up images of frontier homesteading in the US, or Amish ‘barn raising’, or as it is called in Ireland, ‘Meitheal’, a term proudly used in ‘Herself’.
In the film, Sandra and her two daughters are on a long waiting list for housing, and a google search on self-building takes her to irishvernacular.com, a site which offers free plans for a self-build home by architect Dominic Stevens.
Stevens built his original home in 2008 for €25,000 and discovered that Ireland has a rich history of DIY home building. His build was simple, with three bedrooms, two stories, and 775 square feet.
“I drew upon my experience of modular building methods, the wonderful work of self-building pioneer Walter Segal, and the rural vernacular tradition of building your house instead of going and buying it,” he said
Segal was a Berlin-born British architect who developed a self-build method that uses standard materials to create ecologically sound homes with minimal experience.
The plans used by Sandra in the movie called for an exterior of vertically corrugated matte black Onduline, which is a waterproof French roofing material made from plant fibres compressed with bitumen.
Stevens took inspiration from the Irish ‘currach’ boat, which sports a lightweight timber frame covered with stretched canvas, the black cow sheds in Leitrim, the town where he built his home, and the black Scandinavian houses like those on Fårö Island that use pitch painted on timber.
His initial self-build project grew out of his experiences in Berlin shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He said that “We lived in a city that created itself,” and he brought that sentiment back home to Ireland.
Stevens now sees the possibilities of self-build homes within a community, witnessing the once anonymous residents of his apartment block start to distantly-socialise, swapping tools, and working together to help out, including negotiating with landlords, creating ‘people power’.
‘Herself’, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, was Clare Dunne’s idea and was inspired by a close friend’s story. Without realising it, she tapped into the ‘maker movement’, where women have become adept at construction, the use of power tools, and online tutorials.
On his website, Stevens says ‘The purpose of this website is to place the knowledge of how to build a house once more in ‘the commons’…Use it, enjoy it, respect it.’
Herself is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, and the plans to build the dwelling can be found at irishvernacular.com.
If you’re interested in timber frame houses and looking for more information, visit our site today.