This heater is finished in earth render: no lime, no plaster, no paint. Earth is the material that best suits a masonry heater — it takes up thermal expansion without cracking, can be repaired simply by re-wetting, and lends itself to hand modelling that mechanical floating does not give.
The brief brings together in one volume four uses rarely found side by side: a vaulted oven opening on the front, at the top, where the heat of the flue gases is captured before they travel back down; a glazed firebox in the centre; a heated bench returning on the right; and two cast-iron hotplates set into the bench top, for simmering directly on the mass.
On the left, the log store is built in as a continuation, within arm’s reach of the firebox.
The work stands in an old house with limewashed stone walls and an exposed roof frame, beneath a retained timber lintel. The ochre tint of the earth was matched to the floors and joinery of the room.
Completed in autumn 2019. The unit was monitored after delivery: combustion readings were taken again in December 2022, three winters later.
Douarnenez, in Finistère — the westernmost project in this series.
