A burned down house, a journey to a new sanctuary

'Wings Way House' located in Skene's Creek, Victoria, Australia is not just a newly built house. The family that built this house lost their beloved family home for decades to a fire. The existing house, built in the 1970s with a fiber cement exterior, was reduced to ashes in an instant, and what was left for the family was a sense of loss and a desperate wish that something like this should never happen again.

The core task of this project undertaken by MRTN Architecture Office was clear. The goal was to create a ‘permanent home’ that was resilient against fire, durable enough to withstand time, and above all, could provide psychological stability to the family.

The choice of materials becomes a philosophy

The architects paid special attention to material selection to overcome the vulnerabilities of the previous house. Instead of fiber cement exterior materials, bricks, concrete, and materials with excellent fire resistance were selected as the main structural materials. This choice goes beyond simple physical safety and delivers a symbolic message to the owner's family: 'This house will not easily collapse.'

In Australia, many areas are exposed to the risk of forest fires every summer, so the importance of fire-resistant design in residential construction is increasing. Wings Way House is evaluated as having succeeded in meeting the needs of the times while maintaining a warm home atmosphere rather than a cold, fortress-like feel.

The meaning of architecture that overcomes loss

Losing a home is not simply a loss of physical space. It is an experience in which the memories, traces of daily life, and family history disappear together. MRTN Architectural Office deeply understands this emotional context and designed the new house to be a new starting point rather than completely replacing past memories.

Wings Way House is attracting attention as an example of faithfully reflecting the client's core needs of sturdiness and stability while harmonizing with the natural environment of Australia's southeastern coastal region. This project shows how reconstruction after a disaster can be a healing process.