What more perfect part of the world to learn the skills needed to live a truly sustainable life than the rugged coast of West Clare? This is where you’ll find the Common Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Living, a social enterprise co-founded by Common Knowledge, the eco-living innovators behind the Tigín (Tiny Home) project, awarded Wallpaper*’s Life-enhancer of the Year 2023.
The trio behind it, Harrison Gardner, Erin McClure and Fionn Kidney, offer courses on everything from a five-day Build School to weekend courses on welding, furniture building, lime plastering, foraging, organic planting and more.
Common Knowledge Centre for Sustainable Living: from self-building to furniture-making
Inside a Tigín tiny home by Common Knowledge
Common Knowledge has been sharing its sustainable living skills through specific courses since 2022, but this year it finally has a base worthy of its self-build ambitions. ‘We’ve found our home,’ says Gardner, of the 50-acre site, in the heart of Ireland’s breathtaking Burren landscape, just 15km from the Cliffs of Moher, County Clare. ‘It was an old retreat centre, a bit run down, but it had everything we needed.’
The centre’ accommodation is basic and doesn't impinge on the benefits of the landscape
'It was an old retreat centre, a bit run down, but it had everything we needed.'
Raising the €600k purchase price entirely through crowd-funding, the team went on to host a traditional month-long Irish meitheal (where neighbours and friends gather to swap skills and work) to get the place guest-ready, resulting in an impressive wooden workshop space, a lodge, a kitchen and a selection of simple accommodation offerings across The Lodge, Courtyard and Campsite.
Furniture-making courses are offered as part of the Sustainable Living programme
Workshops range from niche-interest pursuits, such as dry-stone walling and lime plastering to building concrete countertops. Co-founder Erin McClure, a textile designer, stylist and founder of Caravanseri Interiors, has also introduced sewing, natural dyeing and loom workshops.
The dining room faces the meadow
In 2024, the key focus is to bring these elements together elevate the accommodation. ‘We’re currently working room by room,’ Gardner says, ‘adding a Caravanseri touch to the interiors and bringing the build methods we teach, such as concrete worktops, naturally dyed fabrics and handmade furniture into each space.’ The aim, he says, is to create a ‘fully immersive Common Knowledge experience. We want people to come and stay and hopefully take inspiration for their own home.’
-
‘Nothing just because it’s beautiful’: Performance artist Marina Abramović on turning her hand to furniture designMarina Abramović has no qualms about describing her segue into design as a ‘domestication’. But, argues the ‘grandmother of performance art’ as she unveils a collection of chairs, something doesn’t have to be provocative to be meaningful
-
A local’s guide to Los Angeles by defiant artist Fawn RogersOregon-born, LA-based artist Fawn Rogers gives us a personal tour of her adopted city as it hosts its sixth edition of Frieze
-
Shakara is a stylish new addition to London's West African dining sceneShakara, a new Marylebone bar and dining room, adds to the city's ever-more impressive high-end West African dining scene
-
A secluded farmhouse in southwest Ireland makes a colourful case for slow livingLiving consciously comes effortlessly at Summerage at The Burren, a serene retreat for city and country dwellers alike
-
The new hotels you’ll want to stay at in 2025Where to stay in 2025? Let six of the most-read-about hotel openings of the past 12 months inspire your escape – from a tiny Tokyo bolthole to a Tanzanian safari retreat
-
This Irish hotel’s cabins in the woods are straight out of a luxurious fairy taleCork’s Montenotte Hotel elevates Ireland’s hospitality scene with the launch of its new cabins in the woods, The Woodland Suites
-
The Mont — Dublin, Ireland -
The Hatch Rooms — Cork, Ireland -
The Dean — Dublin, Ireland
