An Expansive Embrace – Highlands House by Luke Moloney Architecture

Highlands House, a generous residence by Luke Moloney Architecture, sits in the glorious Southern Highlands of New South Wales. Embodying a split footprint that merges contemporary and agrarian references, it at once frames and softens into the rolling hills of its surrounding countryside, offering a place of contemplation and connection for its inhabitants.

Just 90 minutes south of Sydney, the Southern Highlands hosts a cluster of charming villages with striking views across the landscape – a haven for Sydneysiders escaping the heat and hustle of the city. For the clients, the 100-hectare site offered the prospect to craft a permanent residence that would facilitate a calming, rural lifestyle as a couple, with the capacity to also host their children and growing tribe of grand-children well into the future. When standing on the ridge of the site, with sweeping views across the Blue Mountains and Katoomba, architect Luke Moloney describes, “the impression is powerful – it’s like standing on the roof of the world.”

When standing on the ridge of the site, with sweeping views across the Blue Mountains and Katoomba, architect Luke Moloney describes, “the impression is powerful – it’s like standing on the roof of the world.”

Luke was familiar with the site well before his practice was engaged to design the house, the clients having worked with a Surry Hills-based firm some 15 years earlier, where Luke was employed as a graduate architect. The firm’s original design, perched on the crest of the hill, embraced a minimalist, ‘Miesian’ aesthetic that sat in bold contrast to its hillside surroundings. Deciding not to pursue the build, the clients occupied a smaller house on the site whilst they gained a more nuanced appreciation of the setting and “thought long and hard about what they wanted to achieve,” recalls Luke. Over time, the clients found a more subtle siting for the new home – one that captured western views towards Bowral and southern views to the countryside and forest, “effectively preserving the primacy of the natural landscape over the built,” says Luke. Set back from the hill’s ridge, the new house embraces an inconspicuous position on the expansive site, “a place to be discovered, rather than be announced,” Luke reflects.

Inspired by the clients’ interest in concrete construction and love of ‘industrial barn’ architecture, Highlands House is conceived as a cluster of timber-clad, barn-like pavilions linked by a sculptural gallery space. The home’s arrangement effectively breaks down its expansive footprint to lend an approachable human scale, with volumes unfolding as one encounters them. “Conceptually, the house is simple,” asserts Luke. “The Y-shaped plan addresses views in all directions, providing options for sheltered outdoor space. The bedrooms look east to the sunrise, and the living spaces fill with the light of the sunset. Wide ribbon windows tie the interiors to the horizon, with two big chimneys anchoring the end pavilions and punctuating the façade.”

Set back from the hill’s ridge, the new house embraces an inconspicuous position on the expansive site, “a place to be discovered, rather than be announced,” Luke reflects.

On arrival, the home’s gallery wall holds its presence as an artistic expression in its own right – its sculpted, precast concrete form gently twisting and folding to articulate a private entry courtyard. Within its ‘knuckle,’ a timber batten-lined canopy and paved plinth compresses the sense of space, welcoming occupants and framing expansive views to the Blue Mountains along the horizon. This intimate gesture tempers the site’s sense of limitless space with a marked interface to the domestic realm, catching visitors and propelling them into the gallery link beyond.

Here, a gently bending concrete spine connects the home’s three barns, stitching sculpture and art into the fabric of the house. The gallery’s sinuous form draws the eye deep into the plan, fostering a sense of spatial intrigue. “We thought about it strategically, seeking to craft a quality of space that was closer to art itself,” says Luke. The meandering volume effectively “ties semi-public uses connected to philanthropy and art into the experience of the home,” with dark battened ceilings and polished concrete floors elegantly framing the clients’ impressive collection along-side borrowed works periodically rotated by their gallerist friends.

On arrival, the home’s gallery wall holds its presence as an artistic expression in its own right – its sculpted, precast concrete form gently twisting and folding to articulate a private entry courtyard.

To the west, a double-height barn pavilion hosts the home’s principal living spaces and secondary bedrooms. The expansive, pitched-roof form establishes a “crisp, monastic quality,” describes Luke, finished with a sliver of skylight along its peak that “allows light to wash across the interior surfaces.” Below, fine glazing captures panoramic views across the landscape, “allowing the terrain to rush in.” The main bedroom occupies its own eastern pavilion, and overflow accommodation sits above the ga-rage pavilion to the south – presently occupied by one of the couple’s adult children and her husband whilst their own home is being built.

Though Highlands House is largely open plan, volumetric shifts subtly articulate the structure’s spatial program, “creating zones that are snug, grand or in between, according to their use,” reflects Luke. The openness to the landscape anchors the residence with the vitality of its surroundings, animating its interior expression. Thoughtfully curated finishes, balancing light and dark, smooth and textured, luxurious and restrained, enhance its sheltering quality, lending comfort and serenity “that makes the house feel like a home.”

Though Highlands House is largely open plan, volumetric shifts subtly articulate the structure’s spatial program, “creating zones that are snug, grand or in between, according to their use,” reflects Luke.

The building’s elemental architecture is overlaid with a secondary language in its furniture – “sombre, tailored, tactile and European in feel,” Luke describes. The clients’ combination of traditional and contemporary pieces creates a looseness that humanises the interior, enhanced by woven jute rugs and crumpled linen textiles. Though unique in expression, the furniture fuses with architecture, its subtle, handcrafted qualities forging connections to the building’s mellow concrete and timber, designed to “endure, age and grey off to take on the colours of the bush around it,” says Luke.

Occupying a house that could run off-grid was essential to the owners, both in principle and by virtue of the remote site. As active investors in solar technology, the clients opted for a high-performance solar array and batteries as early components of the build, partly powering the later stages of construction. Rainwater is harvested across the home’s roofs and outbuildings, and two garden dams catch stormwater for general irrigation and bushfire management. Planting of fire-retardant species alone the south protects the house from bushfire threat in the direction of pre-vailing winds, whilst substantial existing vegetation is retained to maintain the site’s forested setting. The basic tenets of environmentally sustainable design are equally integral to the home – “awnings and screens to provide shade in summer and draw in sun in winter, high-performance insulation and cooling natural ventilation,” says Luke, increasing occupant comfort and significantly reducing energy usage over the project’s lifespan.

The building’s elemental architecture is overlaid with a secondary language in its furniture – “sombre, tailored, tactile and European in feel,” Luke describes.

Highlands House has a unique arrangement that allows each volume to be appreciated anew from multiple perspectives, facilitating a multi-layered experience. Consistently set against a foreground of landscape – including a kitchen garden and chook run that services the clients’ hospitality business in Moss Vale – Luke Moloney Architecture’s skilful segmentation of the large property fosters humility in its expression, delivering a home that is both sensitive to its natural surroundings and nurturing of life well-lived within its walls.