THE TREASURE HUNTER OF KEW

Photographer: Thomas Walk

An architect's story expressed through his home, and the many objects within

Built, rebuilt and continuously in reconfiguration, this is the private home of famed Australian architect John Wardle. While many great designs are romanticised as the work of a single brush stroke, this is a house that consists of a thousand.

“It spans the life of our family,” Wardle explains. “At this stage what’s left of the original is part of the plan of the ground floor. Each cycle of renovation is about tearing away at the things that life has moved beyond and knowing what things to retain.”

Importantly, Wardle’s house isn’t notable for following one rigid style, but for combining so many. There’s a tribute to Louis Kahn in one corner of the house and another tiled entirely with the handiwork of a single Japanese ceramic artist. There are items of furniture crafted by Wardle himself alongside commercial pieces by larger brands. All of it however pales in comparison to his collection of ‘objects’.

They number in the thousands, populating wall to wall shelves, each with their unique story to tell. Paintings, old cameras, ceramics, model cars, books, sculptures and so on. Some traded over the counter, some dug up from the dirt.

"The last day I spend in any city is invariably spent rushing around to buy an extra suitcase to take things home in."

There is a sort of choreography to it, but they’re disparate objects that span the world and different time frames. I like teasing out similarities between things that may have had completely different sets of cultural agenda, technologies and histories in their making. Many are a result of the (barely legal) archeological digs I’ve done all my life. From the plowed fields of Sicily to the Thames at low tide to the builder’s refuse area behind Hadrian’s Villa. Tokyo, Lunigiana, Scandinavia, everywhere I go I end up searching through ‘junk’ markets. The last day I spend in any city is invariably spent rushing around to buy an extra suitcase to take things home in.

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A minimalist’s heart attack in theory, but harder to fault in reality. The Kew residence is the result of an architect’s singular vision, like many other houses, although instead of that applying simply at the point of inception, it’s a statement that spans the life cycle of the house, proving above all that great design isn’t always bound to its original iteration.