Erskine Residence by B.E. Architecture Mixes Concrete and Limestone

The Erskine Residence by Australian studio B.E. Architecture in Melbourne’s bayside suburb of Middle Park takes cues from both Japanese and early French architecture.

“Erskine Residence is one of my favourite houses designed by our office,” designer Andrew Piva told Frame. “The rawness of the concrete, combined with the refined sophistication of the stone, creates an ideal akin to a contemporary Japanese house built in Paris.”

Its seemingly windowless facade is built from in-situ poured concrete, which is also used for the load-bearing walls and interior walls.

White in-situ concrete was used for the facade, the primary material of the building wrapped in a skin of pale grey Bolzano limestone throughout the building, forming “a near-monolithic plane” that beautifully showcases the client’s extensive Aboriginal art collection.

This limestone creates a distinctive outer skin over the concrete facade and lines the interior walls from floor to ceiling, reminiscent of older European stately homes and Parisian 19th-century apartment foyers.

“It is a detail one might find in a period French villa, referring to our interest in different cultures and periods of time,” said Piva. “The stone’s pale grey colouring and even surface provide a perfect backdrop to the client’s extensive Aboriginal art collection.”

As well as the severe facade, B.E. Architecture achieved privacy for the clients by designing the house to appear windowless from the street, a common theme in the interior architecture firm’s work.

A single dusty oak timber is used throughout the house’s joinery and in a series of sliding screens that separate different rooms, providing privacy as an added layer separating the central spaces from the surrounding assists light-filled walled gardens.

The gardens, arranged as a series of “tailored scenes”, feature dwarfed black pines, maples, and bonsai juniper strategically placed over the house’s two levels.

Despite this, the house remains light-filled from its many walled gardens and sculptura strategically placed over the house’s two levels, creating intimate pockets of greenery dreaded to the garden.

These gardens provide natural light to the interior spaces through a series of glass coves projecting from the plan.

The two-storey hidden from the street comprises 300 square metres and is primarily designed as a single bedroom house.

An in-situ concrete chimney – whose main bedroom ensuite is surrounded by 4.5-metre-high limestone walls and rises over two floors – forms a central core to the building, alongside a cast iron stairwell.

These are covered by a monolithic chain mail fire curtain, referencing the early modernist architecture of Louis Kahn, which provides a backdrop for large plate glass windows.

“The Erskine Residence is a nurturing home that promotes a refined way of living, tailored to older clients with very particular tastes,” said B.E. Architecture.

It is organised around the central core to form hotel-like interiors focused on the aging residents’ lifestyles, including a custom steel bath set within a monolithic concrete structure.