His award-winning flying garden was inspired by Avatar. But Diarmuid Gavin’s latest creation is straight out of Gone with the Wind.
The gardener’s architect has written to Wicklow county council to explain why Gavin’s own garden at his home in Kilmacanogue currently resembles a building site.
Gavin is said to be in the process of turning his two-storey property into a house resembling the Plantation-style properties of the southern states of America.
To achieve this effect, he is seeking to add a wrap-around verandah and porch of the kind more frequently associated with South Carolina than North Wicklow.
As part of a planning application seeking to “retain” part of the work that has already taken place, Felim Dunne, Gavin’s architect, explains his client was unaware planning permission was needed as “the works carried out had not added area to the house”.
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Dunne’s letter stated: “As the works were considered to be part of an overall landscape design for the house and garden, the applicant had mistakenly believed that planning permission was not required.”
The architect said Gavin, who recently presented Dirty Old Towns on RTE, had now “suspended” all works “pending the receipt of planning permission”. Gavin’s retention permission states: “A key design feature is the wraparound two-storey verandah inspired by the antebellum houses of the southern states of America.”
Dunne wrote: “The verandah provides a new elevation to the house with the capacity to enjoy the rural setting of the existing house.”
Gavin’s architect argues that the existing building is “poorly configured” and says the current design “fails to take advantage of any of the wonderful views available to the house”.
Dunne wrote: “For instance, the kitchen has an existing window to the side, overlooking a neighbour’s bedroom window some 10 metres to the west, rather than any window in the wall with spectacular views to the south.”
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The letter also states Gavin wants to add three landscape terraces at garden level and a two-storey pavilion at the end of the garden. He also plans to plant “curtain walls” of mature evergreen bamboo between his and his neighbour’s homes to increase privacy.
Gavin told a magazine earlier this year his garden was a “mess” and “full of 100-year-old cast iron columns, piles of limestone and machinery”.
He described the planned pavilion as a “folly”. Although originally intended as a drinking den, he has since decided to turn it into a mini-house with a kitchen, bathroom, dining room, study and attic room for his six-year-old daughter, Eppie.
“It’s basically a very elaborate doghouse,” he said.
A decision on the application, made in the name of Gavin’s wife, Justine Keane, is due in August.