Burnt Earth Beach House breaks through the ground in ragged, abstract shapes, as if it’s emerging from the earth. It began life as a question: is there an alternative to building with timber that is just as nature-friendly but also accessible and ubiquitous? For architect John Wardle, who has headed up his namesake studio in Melbourne for more than 30 years (and is behind projects such as Bass Coast Farmhouse), the answer was baked earth.
‘We’re always curious about developing materials, and terracotta has universal qualities,’ says Wardle. ‘Our research shows it has good environmental credentials. It’s also practical and we’ve engaged with specialists to develop it. Terracotta has these beautiful qualities of warmth, texture and tonality that resonated with us. So we landed on baked earth – or the anglicised, and now Australianised, “burnt earth”, a playful term that became the house’s name.’
