Welcome to the Hardie Village!

A major challenge of The Block each year is to not only build homes under tight time and budget restrictions, but to make sure they all look beautiful.

With so much on the line in the hit reality renovation competition, contestants and builders know it’s absolutely vital that their home should stand out from the others, have the kind of look that catches a potential buyer’s eye and create – from first glance – that elusive emotional connection.

Fortunately, they have a range of products available that helps on all fronts, The Hardie Architectural Collection.

With multiple wall and floor options for inside and out, all separate in style but compatible with each other, it’s simple to take pieces from different areas of the range and create unique bespoke facades says Julian Brenchley, the multi-award-winning architect who designed the five homes for The Block’s 20th season.

“The James Hardie suite of products provide a perfect palette of cladding materials that can be used in a variety of creative ways to achieve almost any desired style and look,” Julian says.

Maddy & Charlotte achieved a striking facade presence with their use of Hardie Fine Texture Cladding.

“Their products are a ‘mix and match’, so we are able use one product like Linea weatherboards and mix in Axent Trims to create a coastal mid-century modern vibe, or similarly, we can adopt Oblique cladding and exaggerate the mid-century style.

“The Architectural Collection allows the designer to mix and match wall cladding products with confidence for an awesome result.”

And each, he adds, has its own style.

On Kristian and Mimi’s house 5 for example – the only two-story home on The Block Island – he used Fine Texture Cladding and Oblique Cladding to layer the facade.

“The result was a remarkable external appearance, and quite diffident to the other houses on the Block,” Julian says.

Looks aside, Julian is quick to point out the benefits of using a versatile and durable product in a place like Phillip Island where the weather can change from hot summer days to cold rain in a single day.

James Hardie’s cladding is made from a unique mix of cement, sand, water and cellulose fibre. 

Australian-made, it’s fire and damage resistant, the prefect guard against moisture, termites and anything the weather can throw at it.

And when the home you’re designing is going to be exposed to such a changeable environment for decades, knowing the look you created will last is important, Julian says.

Ricky and Haydn used pops of colour  and Hardie Oblique Cladding to bring their exterior to life.

“The James Hardie products are uniquely placed to be a great look and be environmentally sustainable… they last a long, long time!” he says.

What doesn’t take a long time, adds The Block’s overseeing builder Aiden O’Shannessy, is building with the James Hardie products.

“Using larger format sheet products and board lengths makes for some pretty efficient building methodology,” Aidan says.

“Basically, it’s just great for speed of installation!”

The Linea Weatherboard used on houses two and four for example are pre-primed, thick horizontal weatherboards with deep shadow lines, available in 150mm and 180mm widths.

Courtney and Grant's Linea Weatherboard adds a sense of style to their facade.

Incorporating a tongue and groove system it can be quickly and cleanly installed with clean butt lines, Aiden says.

“The weatherboards are quick to go because of that tongue and groove and that they’re end matched,” he says.

“That means you can just rock on just going length to length. And the large format Fine Texture boards for the board and batten look means you get pretty good instant coverage.”

Kylie & Brad also used Linea Weatherboard to achieve their striking entrance.

And that speed is helped, he added, by using the new James Hardy Structural Cavity baton.

“That has been a bit of a game changer for us,” he says.

“It is a batten that provides the ventilation we need in our cavities now for the new National Construction Code regulations plus it is also a structural batten so it can span across multiple studs. Previously we would have had to put on ply (wood) first and then another timber batten to make sure that we have a gap and ventilation corridor happening whereas this Structural Cavity batten does the two jobs in one.”

Even better, in comparison with traditional timber weatherboards, the James Hardie products have far more durability and will have less maintenance issues, he says.

The style and construction versatility all adds up to the perfect way to design and build, Julian says.

Especially given in this project, every home needs to fulfill the same basic demands, but absolutely has to be different from its neighbour.

“With the James Hardie Architectural Collection of external cladding products we were able to create five unique houses in our so-called James Hardie Village,” Julian says.

“While the Block houses share some building form similarity, each one of them adopts a different external product and takes on an individual identity.”

To view the full range of James Hardie products you can visit their website.