NEW SOUTH WALES Inside an architect's final masterpiece built between two mountains, Saddle House is shaped by a rare rural setting and a deeply personal architectural legacy. Tucked into a secluded valley in New South Wales, the home sits against rainforest and looks north across the landscape, occupying a site selected after its owners, Brett and Debbie Ditchfield, had lived on the wider property for several years. Once part of a working cattle farm and horse stud, the land offered the peace and tranquillity that would come to define the home.
The brief to architect Dylan Wood centred on creating an easy-to-live-in, low-maintenance residence that responded carefully to its surroundings. Northern views, seasonal comfort and protection from stronger coastal winds informed its position, allowing Saddle House to settle naturally into the landscape. Inside an architect's final masterpiece built between two mountains, the architecture balances this pragmatic approach with moments designed simply for enjoying the setting.
Organised across three wings, the house separates the garage, bedrooms and primary living spaces while maintaining a strong relationship with the land. The eastern wing accommodates the kitchen, dining area and main bedroom, which cantilevers above a natural waterway. On the northern side, a curved architectural envelope frames a large sliding window and recessed sitting area, creating a quiet place from which to take in the outlook.
The restrained material palette further grounds inside an architect's final masterpiece built between two mountains. Brick, timber, concrete and glass are assembled with an emphasis on honesty, while different timber species introduce subtle variations in colour, tone and grain. The simplicity reinforces the clarity of Wood's architectural language without competing with the surrounding landscape.
Saddle House also carries the story of an important collaboration. After Wood was diagnosed with cancer, he entrusted the completion of the project to architects Russell and Carolyn McFarlane of Austin McFarlane Architects, former colleagues who understood his approach and shared familiarity with his material palette. With the exterior form and much of the detailing already established, their work focused largely on resolving the interiors and extending Wood's original ideas throughout the home.
The process of completing inside an architect's final masterpiece built between two mountains required both sensitivity and interpretation. Decisions were approached through an understanding of Wood's drawings, model and design intent, while also allowing the owners and new architectural team to contribute to the final resolution. Builder Joss McNamara of JM Builder, who had worked with Wood for almost a decade, brought another layer of continuity to the process.
The result is a home defined as much by relationships as architecture. Inside an architect's final masterpiece built between two mountains, the considered arrival, curved glazing, cantilevered spaces and tactile materiality preserve Wood's vision while reflecting the collective knowledge of those who knew him and his work. Saddle House stands as a peaceful rural retreat and a lasting expression of collaboration, friendship and architectural continuity.
0:00 - Introduction To Saddle House By Dylan Wood & Austin McFarlane Architects 2:45 - Continuing An Architectural Legacy 5:12 - Reimagining The Interiors With A New Perspective 6:57 - A House Shaped Around Three Distinct Wings 8:21 - Timber As The Heart Of The Material Palette
Photography by Pablo Veiga. Architecture by Dylan Wood and Austin McFarlane Architects. Build by JM Builder. Landscape design by Cooke Landscape Architecture. Filmed and edited by The Local Production. Production by The Local Production.
Location: New South Wales, Australia
The Local Project acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land in Australia. We recognise the importance of Indigenous peoples in the identity of our country and continuing connections to Country and community. We pay our respect to Elders, past and present, and extend that respect to all Indigenous people of these lands.
The Saddle House is a tranquil, rural retreat designed to blend seamlessly into its rainforest surroundings. Originally a cattle farm and horse stud, the home was envisioned as a low-maintenance sanctuary. The project is a poignant collaboration, completed by architects Russell and Carolyn to honor the original vision of their late friend and colleague, Dylan Wood.
The Saddle House is a tucked away, wonderful little corner of the world that very few people
know about. Even people who've lived in the area for a long, long time don't know this little
valley exists. It's got a rural environment that is second to none in our mind. My name's Brett
Ditchfield, my wife Debbie and I are the owners of the Saddle House. What we were looking for
with the Saddle House was a home offering peace, tranquility. It used to be a much larger property,
it used to be a working cattle farm, it was also a horse stud. I've always been interested in
breeding so I reintroduced the horse stud side to it. The design of the home evolved as a consequence
of my seeing a house that I really liked, so I consciously chased down the architect of that
building and that's how I found Dylan and we had a good chat and he came on site here to discuss
the project. The brief that I came up with for Dylan was that we wanted a home that was going
to be easy to live in, it was going to be low maintenance and yet took advantage of the views
that we get from the north here, but also allowed us to be warm in winter and cool in summer.
We'd lived on the property for a number of years before we settled on this site. It's out of the
gully in a way so we don't get a sea wind, we only get a sea breeze.
It's a comfortable, relaxed, tranquil home that sort of nestles into the rainforest behind it.
Dylan was a very easy man to work with. He had some wonderful ideas, sometimes we'd come up
with ideas, often Dylan would morph those and make them better ideas, but he never made us feel
like we were being left behind. He was very embracing with what we wanted to achieve.
He helped steer us in the direction of a wonderful home that we felt that we had a lot of input to.
Dylan's passing was a sad, very sad time. Dylan was a wonderful bloke, he was easy to get on with,
he was quirky, he was a family man and he went way too young. Dylan knew that he didn't have a lot
of time left or at a point in time he knew he didn't have a lot of time left. The project was
completed from a shell standpoint but there was still a lot of design components within the house
which hadn't been finalised. Luckily for us, Dylan had worked with a team of architects, Russell and
Carolyn. He'd worked with them, he knew their talents and capabilities, they knew his talents
and capabilities. So Dylan came to me and explained where he was at with things and said he wanted to
ask these guys to take over for him. As sad as it was, the answer was of course yes. If Dylan
thought these were the right people to take over and continue the project for him, delivering the
vision that he had for the place, then that was the right decision. We spend some time with every
project trying to understand what is the unique element of that project. In this project there
was no doubt as to what that was. It was about taking somebody else's idea, one whose architecture
you were very fond of, but also needed to bring your own work to to complement that existing
building and to finish it in a way that he would be proud of and that we were proud of. We were first
approached for the Saddle House partway through construction. The original architect, Dylan Wood,
was a dear friend of ours and he worked for us a number of years as a graduate architect before
starting his own practice. When Dylan was diagnosed with cancer and he decided to stop treatment,
he asked us to help him finish some of his projects and one of the projects we came out to
see was the Saddle House. The design was very well advanced when we joined the project. The exterior
form, materiality and almost all the details were already conceived of and discussed and
coordinated with the builder Joss. Our role came where the interiors were less defined and that
was more scope for resolution and to carry the ideas of the exterior through to the remainder of
the building. We had to absorb the building in its current state and all the drawings and all the
design information, the beautiful model that he'd made and really absorb it like it was one of our
own projects so that then when we needed to make additional decisions we could do that from a
understanding and authenticity with as much of the original intent as we could understand.
We could reimagine their brief and while we knew how Dylan worked and how he'd like to do his
interiors we also took it on ourselves to bring ourselves into the project and also to bring
Brett and Deb into the project as well. My working relationship with Dylan was pretty established
when we took on the Saddle House. We'd been working together for almost 10 years
and we really understood the way that we would try and deliver our projects together.
From a builder's perspective there was so many challenges on this project. One of the challenges
was redirecting the main road that you enter the Saddle House. Dylan's vision was to orientate your
arrival at the north facing dam and this was achieved by redesigning the road taking you up
to the south side of the property where you enter the garage. The building being split into three
sort of wings we have the garage wing, the eastern wing and the western wing. The western wing sort
of houses three of the bedrooms and a guest entertaining area. The eastern wing of the house
is definitely the most celebrated area where we have you know the entertaining kitchen,
dining and the master bedroom which counter leavers out over a natural waterway.
One of the wonderful components about having a good architect is they come up with good ideas.
Rather than just having a flat wall on the northern side of the house we've got an architecturally
curved envelope within which we've got this beautiful big window. The window
slides open and that then leaves a recessed area where you can just lie down, read the paper,
have a cup of coffee. It's a beautiful spot to just position yourself and enjoy the outlook.
The rounded window on the northern side of the house was a very complex part of the glazing.
It was very unique in its shape and very very testing to everyone involved but we're very
happy with how it's turned out and how it looks and flows through the build.
The palette of materials used in the building are very simple and straightforward. Brick,
timber, concrete, glass and they're assembled in honest and authentic manner.
Dylan was very fond of using a lot of timber in his projects but he wasn't shy about using
a variety of different timbers and mixing and matching timber to suit either the situation
or to highlight their qualities or the juxtaposition between different colours,
tones and figure in their makeup. Dylan worked with us when he was a graduate and we developed
this palette together so it's a very familiar palette for us. We use a lot of the same
materials and so we're very confident in picking up the design and materiality and extending it
to the house. A question we asked ourselves quite a bit during the project was what would Dylan do?
Sometimes it was an outlandish idea perhaps that we could all laugh about,
sometimes it was just the right idea for the problem we were tackling. The only issue was
we could really only imagine what Dylan would do and so our shared experience, us all knowing Dylan
very well, meant that we could put our heads together and resolve things together in a
collaborative manner. I feel Saddle House is definitely our most accomplished project to date
together. It was very interesting to try and articulate what someone else would do and I think
all in all we've done a really good job and Dylan would be would be stoked to see the house.
