25P House
A place is never just a place.
It holds memory, climate, rhythm and story. This home is shaped to connect with all of it — quietly, and with care.
This is not a new build, but an alteration and reduction of an existing post-war house. The original structure was large, inefficient, and disconnected from its landscape. Through careful subtraction and place-based design, the project reworks it into something smaller, warmer, and more enduring — a home that participates in its ecology, rather than sitting apart from it.
Set high on a steep escarpment, the site is shaped by constraint — bushfire overlay, landslip risk, and protected koala habitat. These are not barriers, but conditions the home responds to. Every decision is grounded in the realities of place, climate, and care.
By removing 54 square metres of unnecessary floor area, the design improves thermal performance, liveability, and resource use. It opens up, not out — anchoring family life around a core of light, movement, and shared activity. The home gently reorients itself to its southern garden, drawing it into daily life.
Every material is chosen with intent. Locally grown Araucaria brings warmth and local knowledge to the interiors — timber that belongs to this region in both ecology and culture. Brass replaces stone at the bench — avoiding extractive materials and offering a surface that will age with use, holding the quiet marks of life lived over time.
Outside, the house sits gently in its setting. Its muted tones are drawn from the escarpment — greens and earths that let it recede into the landscape rather than rise above it. The architecture doesn’t declare itself. It listens. It lets the trees lead.
Windows are placed to frame not just views, but time. Light moves through the house like weather — direct, filtered, dappled. Shadows stretch and shift across the day, revealing the rhythm of the seasons. The home becomes attuned to the site’s living patterns. A shelter, yes — but also a participant in place.
“We’re not after a huge house — just one that feels right. A place where our family can be together, where we feel connected to the landscape, and where the house supports us without asking too much. Comfort, warmth, and enough — that’s what matters.”
25P House doesn’t sit in nature. It is nature — reshaped, adapted, and held with care. A home reduced not to compromise, but to offer more.
