How Mortlock Timber Helped Shape Paperbark House

Madeleine Blanchfield Architects describes the design influences for Paperbark as being drawn from essential characteristics of the existing site. A dark volcanic stone wall and the timber cladding of the original cottage underpin the material selection and informed the extension’s finishes. The outcome of this narrative is a series of volumes that manifest like a shadow of the existing house, receding into the landscape with an elegant sympathy for the context – and Mortlock Timber systems were critical to this outcome.

The project achieves layers of texture in the black volumes, engaging with customisable systems by way of directional changes and scale variation in the timber cladding – wide boards are contrasted with fine battens. Here, the Trendplank and Proplank systems are combined and leveraged to achieve an aesthetic design resolution that is also durable and suitable for the coastal setting. The thermally modified, natural timber is co-ordinated across the project with versatile profiles; wide boards give mass to the ground floor and operable screens are clad with battens to achieve a lightweight upper storey.

The project achieves layers of texture in the black volumes, engaging with customisable systems by way of directional changes and scale variation in the timber cladding.

With a suite of sustainably sourced and carbon-negative timbers manufactured under chemical-free conditions – including a sublime Tasmanian oak used extensively for the ceiling (pictured above) – Mortlock Timber contributed to the home’s robust sustainability ethos. To achieve the architect’s vision, a plant-based, non-polluting finish was applied en masse to the timber cladding, resulting in an understated and discrete composition of black boxes. Responsible solutions are a source of pride for the Mortlock team; the capacity to achieve sustainable targets without compromising the durability and aesthetic requirements of a project is at the core of the supplier’s ethos.

Natural timber possesses properties that lend value and beauty to the design vision of a project like Paperbark; there are few cladding options capable of creating such a diverse and varied range of finishes and applications with concealed fixing and clip-in systems. Mortlock Timber recognised the contribution of its Vacoa cladding (which is 100 per cent PEFC certified) to the material palette of the home, and the collaboration with the architect is a testament to the value of co-ordinating natural timber products and appropriate finishes to achieve a successful outcome for a project with such a context-driven design narrative.

With a suite of sustainably sourced and carbon-negative timbers manufactured under chemical-free conditions, Mortlock Timber contributed to the home’s robust sustainability ethos.

Wrapped in Mortlock Timber’s natural timber cladding, Paperback House recedes from the street with a blackened finish and textural variation that intelligently utilises the best properties of the sustainable material to achieve a design vision that is completely true to its environment.

Architecture and interior design by Madeleine Blanchfield Architects. Build by Venari Projects.

Natural timber possesses properties that lend value and beauty to the design vision of a project like Paperbark.