Location: Thornton, Australia

Design Team: JAK Architecture

Area: 245 m²

Year: 2026

Builder: Hedger Construction

Interior Styling: Sylvie Goetz

Photography: Tasha Tylee

Design Features: Cathedral House occupies a rural hillside in Thornton, Victoria, looking toward the Cathedral Ranges and the open valley below. JAK Architecture conceived the 245-square-metre building as a low-maintenance weekend retreat for family gatherings, rest and long-term use. Rather than placing an object above the landscape, the design begins with topography, bushfire exposure and views in several directions, allowing the house to feel both sheltered by the hill and open to the distance.

Two building volumes form an L around a central courtyard and covered timber deck beneath a corrugated gabled roof. On approach, vertical timber cladding meets board-formed concrete end walls, with circular openings providing a restrained but memorable identity. The courtyard connects entry, pool, outdoor dining and the shared interior, making the centre of the house an exterior room protected by roof, rock face and architecture.

The house is set into the slope, with its northern edge pressed against exposed rock as the land falls southward. The pool and entertaining terrace occupy a sunny, protected enclosure to the north, while full-height sliding glass opens the southern facade to the valley, daylight and cross-ventilation. Bushfire resilience is inseparable from this setting: during construction, advancing fires came within a few hundred metres. Durable materials, minimal native planting and a low profile therefore answer environmental risk as well as visual character.

Each room establishes a distinct relationship with the land. Living areas look south across the valley and ranges; bedrooms turn west toward the close grain of the eucalypt bush; and a circular window in the principal ensuite frames the Cathedral Ranges from the shower, its view softened and refracted through reeded glass. Instead of relying on one continuous panorama, the house calibrates distance through courtyard openings, full-height glazing, narrow apertures and round windows.

Inside, polished plaster, pale timber joinery, board-formed concrete, terrazzo and stone benchtops whose veining recalls exposed rock create a quiet material field. Linen, wool, leather and timber furniture extend this tactile register, while colours are drawn from dry grass, cool stone, deep eucalypt foliage and ochre soil. The architecture ultimately recedes behind the landscape, offering a durable and peaceful framework for family life over decades.

Design Team: JAK Architecture is a Victorian practice led by architect Jackson Wylie, working between Clifton Hill in Melbourne and Point Lonsdale on the Bellarine Peninsula. Its portfolio centres on houses and the renewal of existing buildings, with an emphasis on strengthening the relationship between people and place through scale, material and landscape.

Restraint, retention and long-term use shape the studio's approach. New houses are organised around topography, climate and outlook, while renovation projects begin by identifying what can be kept and made useful. Rather than applying a repeatable formal signature, the practice brings construction, furniture, interior space and outdoor life together in response to the specific conditions of each site.

Recent residential work includes Wood House in Barwon Heads, Fellows House in Point Lonsdale and Hermitage House in Geelong. Cathedral House extends this site-first direction. Built by Hedger Construction and styled by Sylvie Goetz, it balances the demands of a bushfire-prone rural landscape with the ease and durability expected of a family retreat.