Burnt Earth Beach House

Burnt Earth is John Wardle's own house  a family retreat at Anglesea, on Victoria's Surf Coast, built almost entirely from terracotta. Torn brick outside, Tuscan tiles within, every surface pitched to the ochre of the cliffs beyond. The name plays on baked earth, and on the beach shack that stood here before it half lost to the Ash Wednesday fires.

Filming a house an architect built for himself is a rare thing. Every decision is personal, and it shows: deeper, moodier, none of the white plasterboard and glass most coastal homes reach for. We shot it for The Local Project. There wasn't an angle that didn't give us something.