Tempting Timber

With this curvy, glowing form, architect Jesse Judd has rendered the sometimes-harsh Australian bush habitable for his friends and family.

Building with timber is an Australian tradition. Architect Jesse Judd honored this heritage, but selected recycled or plantation timbers instead of nonrenewable hardwoods from old-growth forests. The house’s interior floors and walls are clad in rotary-cut hoop pine plywood—thin sheets of plantation timber that the builder could bend to fit the curve of the steel portal frames.

Hoop pine is a native Australian timber that’s being planted and harvested as a sustainable building material. It’s very versatile, serving as a durable floor surface as well as a veneer for walls and kitchen joinery. Other joinery elements in the house feature eco-friendly medium-density fiberboard (MDF), which is made from plantation-grown radiata pine, recycled paper, bamboo, and scrap wood.

The deck required a lot of timber, too. Judd used reclaimed turpentine timber from the demolished piers of the old Woolloomooloo Wharf in Sydney. Under the hot Australian sun, the rough-sawn planks have weathered to a soft gray, and after years partially submerged in the blue waters of Sydney Harbor individual planks have warped and swelled to some degree. Judd says it will take a while to settle—and he’s quite happy to wait.

Black, Red, and Green All Over

A dramatic house in Australia drew its architectural inspiration from Mies van der Rohe but got its color from fresh tomato sauce.
Project: Live Work Home

Richard Cook, a principal at Cook + Fox Architects, surveyed the Near Westside’s inventory of vacant structures and arrived at a conclusion that would guide the design of the Live Work Home.
The Lowest Utility Bill on the Block

Hybridization is hit or miss (i.e., the jackalope). But this Houston home combines two housing types to create a conscientious alternative.
Reclaimed Wood by TerraMai

For out-and-out oenophiles, what could be more satisfying than a house ensconced in redwood reclaimed from wine barrels? TerraMai's siding–redwood, teak, Douglas fir, or pine–provides the beauty of aged hardwood without the guilt of clear-cutting (reclaiming about one million board feet of lumber saves a thousand acres of old-growth forest). On average, less embodied energy is used in its production than with other siding, and the wood has the nonwarping stability that comes with age.