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Six years ago, Harrison Gardner and Erin McClure moved to Clare. With the help of friends and community, the couple spent €40,000 fixing up a poorly-kept 40-square-metre cottage, which was bought with cash savings from a decade working in London and Dublin.
This means the couple live rent- and mortgage-free, and will continue to adapt and extend the house as their family needs change. “It’s not as big as the home we’re gonna need ten years from now, when we have two teenage children, friends coming to stay and grandparents coming to visit, but it’s perfect for what we need today,” explains builder and teacher Harrison.
Of course, DIY renovating and extending your own home is a lot more feasible when you’re a builder yourself. That’s where Common Knowledge comes in. Co-founded by four friends – Harrison, Erin, Fionn Kidney and Spider Hickman – the social enterprise teaches basic building skills, creates useful resources, and connects people across the country through courses and an online forum.
Common Knowledge has taught 600 people the fundamentals of home building, many of whom are at points in their lives where they’re ready to do some form of settling down, whether that’s committing to a particular location or starting a family.
Each Tigín costs between €40k and €60k to buy, which is for many the equivalent of a house deposit, and more. But if going a more traditional route, finding a home – for 3.5 times your salary – is the next hurdle. “The deposit isn’t enough anymore,” says Harrison. “And the mortgage cycle works for some people, but in many ways, that cycle was invented by our parents’ generation, and we’re still trying to fulfil it as rent and house prices are going up all the time.”
While there are already small structures available to buy in Ireland, a big draw of the Tigín is that they are on wheels. “That’s an important part of the design because we wanted these homes to be flexible, and obviously an issue with permanent dwellings, particularly in scenic spots, is planning permission concerns, and you need to own land,” says Erin. “However, once on wheels, you can rent land, or park it on family or friends’ land.”
Four Tigíns are now for sale, including one that is at shell-only stage for someone who prefers to do the finishes themselves, and Common Knowledge is also working on an open-source toolkit, available to everyone for free that contains plans, material lists and suppliers.
Each year, Common Knowledge chooses a theme and their Build School participants learn fundamentals of building, and as a group, build a shelter from start to finish within a week. In 2022, 120 participants built a home extension and 90 people built the four tiny houses that are now for sale and will, alongside a FundRazr campaign, help finance Common Knowledge’s new HQ in the Burren. “Our focus this winter is acquiring and securing that property and fundraising for that purchase, and preparing ourselves to offer year-round learning,” Harrison explains with enthusiasm.
“We’re hoping to make next year the year of the stone cottages,” Harrison says. “It’s time to dispel the myth that these buildings are beyond repair.”
In the meantime, The Commonage is live and kicking. It’s a community-led forum, hosted on Discord (the instant messaging social platform), where alumni students ask for each other’s advice and make recommendations.
“What’s happening is that students are putting it out there that they want to host a working party. They’ll feed everyone who comes to help them build. They’re getting amazing responses; groups are coming together and helping each other build their homes. It’s a chance to practise their skills, see a new building in progress, learn and get a bit better,” says Harrison. “In a way, it’s becoming a bit of a naturally-occurring Meitheal, where everyone is there to help their neighbours, to create their shelter and create their home.”
“It’s a really gorgeous and unexpected knock-on effect of running these courses,” Erin chimes. It’s very organic but it’s one of my favourite things about Common Knowledge.”
Photography: Shantanu Starick Styling: Erin McClure
This feature originally appeared in the Autumn/Winter 2022 issue of IMAGE Interiors.