Small projects are “good grounding for research” – John Wardle on Shearer’s Quarters

World Architecture Festival 2012: Australian architect John Wardle tells Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs how small projects can be "a good grounding for research and testing of ideas" in this movie we filmed about his award-winning Shearer's Quarters at the World Architecture Festival in October.
The building, which picked up the award in the villas category, provides a guesthouse alongside Wardle's own farmhouse on an island off the coast of Tasmania. The architect explains how the volume of the building employs "a series of geometric shifts" that transform it from "a skillion at one end" to "a gable at the other". The structure is also based on a strict geometric grid that dictates "all the windows, the doors, the joinery and the room dimensions".
The new building is clad in corrugated iron, which Wardle describes as "the traditional material for agricultural sheds" in the area. "But as it reveals itself it opens up to a completely timber-lined interior," he says. This interior accommodates visiting family and friends, as well as travelling sheep shearers and Wardle discusses how "the social culture of shearing is a wonderful bit of theatre."
Wardle also explains how his Melbourne-based practice usually works on larger projects and describes how the retention of water is an important aspect in the environmental management of any new building in Australia. He states the importance of bringing building back to cities to prevent urban sprawl and says that: "Now is the time for considering the way that cities shape themselves and develop."