Jason Gibney Design Workshop

Perched House : Below

Perched atop a stepped sandstone site in suburban Sydney, this home unfolds across its levels in a dialogue of weight, light, and landscape. A winding garden path crunches underfoot, leading through a resilient metal portal to the warmth of an oak-lined interior, where material, light, and view are quietly orchestrated. Each threshold and courtyard frames nature, offering moments of reflection, connection, and respite.

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Hidden beneath the upper pavilion, the lower level unfolds as a contemplative retreat, responding to the sandstone base with ochre-pigmented concrete and intimate courtyards. A cutout pool, reminiscent of a natural waterhole, is embedded within the ochre courtyard floor, flanked by deep ochre boulders and native planting that echoes the material palette. The experience of descending through the oak portal along the tall stairwell, with shafts of light washing the textured walls, reveals this level in a dramatic, almost poetic gesture — a secret revealed gradually to those who inhabit the house.

This undercroft hosts a sauna in western red cedar, a steam room in matching ochre concrete, a bespoke American oak dining table, and an intimate office nestled among integrated planters. Low-level windows reveal the sandstone rock face, reinforcing a strong connection between architecture and geology. Courtyards and terraces borrow distant landscape while maintaining privacy, each space conceived as a sanctuary for contemplation, renewal, and family life.

Together with the upper pavilion, this level completes a dual personality: the house is both a light-filled, elevated street-facing presence, and a grounded, introspective retreat. The upper and lower levels are distinct in material and atmosphere, yet intimately connected through thresholds, stairs, and framed views — revealing architecture as both experience and revelation, where discovery is part of dwelling.

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