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Introduction
In 1997, architect John Wardle received
the RAIA (Victorian Chapter) Architecture Medal for the
design of the best building in the state - a beach house for
clients, Tony Isaacson and Megan Davis, at Balnarring, an
hours drive south of central Melbourne on the Mornington
Peninsula. The site, nestled amongst coastal ti trees with a
tiny camping ground across the road, is tucked behind the
fore-dune, which screens any ocean view. The house serves as
a "weekender" for the clients - one an executive in the
construction industry, the other in local government. Modest
in size, the house is intended as a retreat, a place to
relax and "run the dogs along the beach". Wardle describes
the house as a place that can be "unpacked" on arrival and
"repacked" on departure, as though the house itself reflects
the joy of happily unpacking the tote bag, thrown in the
back of the car for the weekend away. Wardle effects this by
making a contemporary reading of Modernism, with particular
reference to those houses designed by Marcel Breuer during
his 28-year affiliation with Herbert Beckhard. The use of
timber in Wardle's design, however, plays a key role in
translating this reading.
Description
Wardle is faithful to the Breuer idiom.
In planning terms, the house is both "long", where living
areas are situated at one end, services in the middle and
bedrooms at the far end, and "binuclear", where sleeping and
living areas are more emphatically separated. Wardle also
manipulates the section, so as a result of a rising
skillion, one end becomes two storeys; the ground floor as
garage.
The sequence of entry and threshold is
also carefully considered. Like many Breuer houses, Wardle's
design is hidden (or "unpacks") as a way to heighten
discovery. Visitors are made to approach the house from the
road, a distance that allows, indeed "forces them to
consider the form they are about to enter" (Masello, p47).
Visitors to the Balnarring house must then track along the
long northern face of the building to enter into an outdoor
room, carved out of the long box that is the house, which
makes the (binuclear) plan that separates the living and
sleeping zones.
The house also floats above the site.
This gravity defying notion Breuer referred to as "atavistic
instinct". Thereby the landscape remains relatively
undisturbed and paving, garden walls and driveways are "free
flowing forms that are foils to emphasise the otherwise
linear empha-sis of the house" (Masello, p13). Like Breuer,
Wardle incorporates these earth defying elements with earth
bound or anchoring elements, so that the house cantilevers
over the site. Being elevated the house needed to be light -
a quality inherent in timber building.
The building is clearly Modern. Interior
spaces are spanned with a structural efficiency that allows
for a maximum interplay between inside and out. Dynamic
interplay between solid and void is also explored, at times
extending into the landscape (protruding southern niches).
The open roof of the outdoor room fosters the sense of
capturing additional space. Like Breuer, the house is
contextual, where local materials and vernacular traditions
are embraced.
Structural Description
Wardle uses timber to achieve a
"sheathing" of the building. The external skin is composed
as two stud framed skins - the inner "expressed as finely
dressed and housed within the other, a folded sheath of
undressed vertical cedar lining boards" (Goad, p43). The
outer skin will weather to a grey - white whilst the inner
skin is oiled to reveal its warmth and tactility. The
further you move into the house, or as the house "unpacks",
the use of timber in window joinery, floorboards and
furniture is scaled and finished to express the inherent
qualities of the material.
Wardle's design is a simple frame and
beam system that utilises stud framing so that 'the local
builder could construct it'. In many ways the house is
merely a crafted version of the Australian vernacular for
building 'fibro beach shacks'. It hovers above the site, so
that the timber is free of the ground plane and therefore of
contact with moisture and decay. The cedar cladding will
weather to further enhance the formal nature of the
building.
Effectively, Wardle has designed a box.
The platform rests on a network of concrete stumps that
carry bearers in three lines along the length of the
building, with joists that then span across at approximately
450mm centres. The perimeter walls are standard stud framed
con-struction, typically double thickness to achieve the
aesthetic and "sheathing" of the building. At the top plate
to the stud walls, purlins then span in the same direction
as the floor joists at 900mm spacing. Within the structure
there is a series of steel square hollow sections which act
as lintels for the long strip windows as well as provide a
method of achieving the cantilever for the garage. All of
the steel is hidden within the timber stud wall
frame.
A Strategy for Design with
Timber
Selection of Timber Species in Terms
of Weathering, Aesthetics and Availability
Australia has only recently
produced softwoods in commercial quantities. Except for
Cypress and a few other pines, all of our native timbers
have predominantly been hardwoods. Culturally this produced
a need for softwoods in our building industry because our
historic skill base in commercial construction was based on
building with an imported technology, predominantly centred
on softwoods. This need set up a lively export trade,
particularly with the west coast of the United States, where
Western Red Cedar (WRC) is prolific. WRC, the external
cladding of this building, is a species which has a high
durability and is one of the imported species that has now
become stock building material in this country. Wardle could
have used Cypress pine as the external cladding. However as
a material it tends to be highly figured, less stable,
harder to nail and would weather, unless painted, to a
darker colour. Wardle therefore selected WRC because it was
readily available and would weather to a light uniform
colour.
Wardle selected Jarrah for the external
decking for the house. Predominantly grown in Western
Australia, it has a reputation as a reasonably durable
species to use externally, that weathers well and has a warm
red colour.
The internal flooring is "natural
feature" grade Victorian Ash. Up until recently, most
Australian hardwood was sold unseasoned and only premium
stock was seasoned and sold as flooring. Much of the
remainder, especially figured material, was left unseasoned
and sold, predomi-nantly for domestic framing. The market
for domestic framing has since been largely cap-tured by
Radiata Pine which was used for framing the Isaacson/Davis
house.
Traditionally, in terms of grading timber
flooring, the Australian Standard worked on the principle
that material that had very few natural features in it was
"good", and was called "select" grade material, while
material with more natural feature was regarded as not as
desirable. This material was graded as "Standard or
Utility". This bias was reintroduced by production
requirement, which demanded the higher standard for the
"select" material. This attitude is now actively under
challenge, as architects demand timber with more character
and as industry tries to develop a new market for material
that was traditionally hidden in wall frames. Wardle has
selected "natural feature" flooring because he sought
figuring and therefore a more lively surface in the floor
finish.
In terms of joinery in the building,
Wardle selected Hoop Pine plywood to provide an even palette
and to provide contrast to colour used to paint the
plasterboard walls.
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