BIOPHILIC DESIGN AWARDS

Tall Tree House Wins 2025 Australian Biophilic Design Award

We’re honored to share that our Tall Tree House project has been named the winner of the 2025 Australian Biophilic Design Awards. This international recognition celebrates projects that meaningfully reconnect people with nature through the built environment — a value that sits at the heart of our design philosophy.

Set within a canopy of mature trees, Tall Tree House is a project rooted in place, light, and texture. From the outset, our aim was to design a home that didn't just sit in the landscape, but moved with it — opening and contracting in response to views, sunlight, and the rhythms of daily life.

“Tall Tree House celebrates its natural setting, creating a home that responds thoughtfully and joyfully to its environment. Strong connections between indoor and outdoor spaces are complemented by the integration of Passive House standards, delivering both sustainability and sensory richness without compromise.”

It was particularly meaningful to see the jury recognise the depth of design thinking across materiality, spatial sequencing, and performance — including our Passive House approach, which underpins the building’s comfort, efficiency, and quiet interior climate.

“We particularly appreciated the balanced approach to colour, materiality, and sensory engagement throughout the interiors… Material selections are especially thoughtful, supporting a tactile experience that deepens the connection to place.”

This home is designed to invite calm, curiosity, and slowness. From the filtered morning light in the kitchen to the framed glimpses of tree canopy from the stairwell, every element was conceived to support a deeper relationship with nature.

“Tall Tree House presents a wonderfully comfortable living environment — a place where the boundaries between indoors and landscape dissolve, encouraging slow exploration and daily connection with nature.”

We're especially proud of the project’s design-for-disassembly strategy, which was acknowledged by the jury as an important part of the home’s long-term adaptability and ecological footprint.

“The judges congratulate the team on delivering a very considered example of biophilic design in the home, and encourage the continuation of this thoughtful, place-sensitive practice.”

Thank you

We’d like to thank the Australian Biophilic Design Awards jury for this honour — and our incredible clients, collaborators, and makers who helped bring Tall Tree House to life.

This award is a reminder that great design is about more than aesthetics — it’s about creating spaces that ground us, restore us, and keep us connected to the places we live.

Read all about it in the Otago Daily Times newspaper.

Get in Touch