Jason Gibney Design Workshop

K Y O T O Wood

Crafted from timbers such as Hinoki and Western Red Cedar, each product in this collection embodies the essence of tranquility and harmony. These unique woods, revered for their natural oils and rich aroma, releases a soothing scent when wet, enhancing your bathing ritual and enveloping you in a sense of well-being. As the steam rises, the cedar’s fragrance transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary, promoting a deeper connection to nature and self.

The K Y O T O Wood range celebrates the principles of cleansing and restoration, emphasising the importance of ritual in our daily lives. Each piece is thoughtfully designed to encourage mindfulness, inviting you to slow down and immer se your self in the exper ience . With every drop of water, you are reminded of the gentle flow of life, the importance of self-care, and the beauty of simplicity.

Embrace the serenity of the K Y O T O Wood range and allow the warmth of cedar to wash over you, nourishing both body and spirit. In these moments of quiet reflection, embrace the restorative power of bathing, a ritual that nurtures not just the skin, but the soul.

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Water Chapel

The Tropics

Amongst the Eucalypts

Our clients sought a home of both refuge and connection—a space that might evoke the immersive experiences of camping in natures vastness that allowed for moments of solitude and communal gathering, where family and friends too could find their own space within nature’s embrace. 

Steeply sloped and dense with eucalypts and casuarinas, the site is home to an abundance of native flora and fauna. Surrounded by native forest perched above a lake, the very real risk of fire define the architectural resolution. 

This home is grounded, removing understory threats and fostering seamless flow paths and access to its surrounds. A permeable apron of pebbles and swales channels water and often waterfalls, around the house undeterred. 

The plan breaks and twists along natures contours, creating courtyards, and outdoor pockets offering moments of solitude —to bathe in the forest or pause in shifting shade. Orientation adhering to passive solar principles, and offered protection from prevailing southerly winds. 

Operable facade panels pivot and lock, unfolding the house from its protective enclosure. Floor to ceiling metal screens emerge from wall pockets as barrier to embers and fauna to create a meditative mood, while breezes and outlook are maintained ensuring seamless engagement with nature. 

Sculpted by the forces of its environment, More than a place of shelter, the house is an instrument of contemplation with a profound connection to place that is not an imposition on the land, but an extension of it that invites you to experience the vastness of its landscape and sky. Its modest scale evokes a sense not of inside/outside rooms but of being elevated and belonging to a larger landscape. 

A home to endure, balancing openness and refuge, lightness and permanence tells us we do not have to compromise when choosing to live amongst the eucalypts. 

Barossa Hills

Perched House

Laneway House

A series of lean-tos were removed from the rear of the house, and a new living pavilion inserted across the full site width, opening generously to the terraced rear garden. The pavilion anchors a first floor addition of bedrooms, master suite and balcony, while downstairs, the original front rooms are reconfigured as a teenager’s domain with bedroom, bathroom and study huddled together.

Unlocking valuable extra space, the entry was reoriented onto the side laneway and the long corridor dissolved to expand existing rooms and curate an arrival experience via a steel-framed portal that marks the juncture between old and new.

The pavilion is camouflaged into the fence line at street level with a slim clerestory window peaking above, while the first floor addition reads as two distinct objects, fringed with tiny roof gardens. Peeled back around the entry courtyard, the new bedrooms under gabled roofs are conceived as timber lanterns, drawing in daylight and at night, emitting a warm glow through their charred cedar screens.

Inside, concrete floors are warmed with LVL pine beams and a velvety finish on brickwork and walls. External timber is durable Accoya wood, while the entry portal, its mesh screen door and all guttering is custom made in galvanised steel.

Strategic design has added less than 100 square metres of space, yet completely transformed the experience of living here, bringing sun, sky and garden outlooks inside for the first time. Robust materials will ensure its longevity, while its harnessing of natural light and ventilation helps heat and cool the house year-round without the need for air-conditioning.

Highlands House

Hills Residence

Victorian Terrace

A Victorian Terrace house with poorly organised rooms over five levels was re-imagined to become a home of reception and containment, comfort and serenity, sanctuary and a deep connection with nature.

Vertical circulation was reworked to direct entry towards an arrival respite, a place to pause, sit and welcome guests. From the street entry the home’s levels are simplified into 2 zones; downstairs to kitchen, dining and lounge areas with access to the rear courtyard and pool; up takes you to the more private quarters, an intimate second lounge come study, and the bedroom levels.

Kitchen and dining connect directly with the rear courtyard via a sundeck overlooking the pool, which flows to a second terrace lounge built on the garage roof.

Natural lime plaster, soft textured granite, and oak boards, and are  woven into the inner fabric of the home. Raw steel, and further use of oak are worked and crafted into objects, furnishings, fixtures and fittings.  Each space is designed to nourish the soul, with consideration to light, shade, proportion and materiality.