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.
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.
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 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.
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.
Reference
http://www.timberbuilding.arch.utas.edu.au/projects/aus/459/