Realigned with Purpose – Boneo Country House by John Wardle Architects
Repurposing an existing building on the site, Boneo Country House directs itself and opens up to embrace its landscape. John Wardle Architects uses bold open volumes to create a calming sanctuary internally, surrounded by an immersive and serene environment.
In its rural locale of Boneo, the renovation and extension of an existing home was the inception of Boneo Country House. Taking inspiration from its unique and enviable siting, the old is stitched together with the new, expressed through an opening and shift in architectural gestures. In maintaining the existing building on site and replacing finishes to align with the new, the seeds of sustainable and considered intervention were sown early on. The new extension then branches outward, peeling back to frame and reveal the incoming views through portal-type forms. Through planned and considered insertions, John Wardle Architects expands the original form and layers its previous narrative in with the foundations for the new.
Built by Spence Construction and with landscapes by Eckersleys Garden Architecture, Boneo Country House is a meditative series of spaces. Connected to its landscape visually and formally as it juts out toward the Bass Strait and Port Phillip Bay, the home is both protective for its inhabitants and stands as a clear reminder of place. As a complete reimagining for the site, the new built elements are the crowning totem of the regenerative work planned. Separated by a curved courtyard space and cupped by a curving timber screen, a relief space is created between the old and new that signals the new entry into the home. Wrapped in copper, the sides of the building are held in place with a crafted refinement, and the openings of expansive glass allow a perceived immersion into the scenery below.
Locally sourced timber is utilised throughout as an extension of the sustainable narrative, with the new sitting as an organic and fluid insertion contrasted by the balance of the existing rectilinear lines. As a sensory enclave, the interiors are intentioned to engage its occupants and take them on a journey, leading their view outward to the view. It is a place of refuge and recharge, while also being a place to lightly move through at a wandering pace.
