A tropical sanctuary woven between sky and stone.

The brief asked for a private retreat that could host eight in comfort, but disappear into the landscape at noon. We compressed the public spaces into one long pavilion under a heavy slate roof, then floated the bedrooms above as four lighter timber boxes — each with its own water-thread balcony. The pool runs the full length of the south facade and becomes a thermal mass that drops the courtyard 4°C from ambient during the wet months. There is no air-conditioning in the public spaces.

• Open-air pavilion under a heavy slate roof
• Four floating teak bedroom volumes
• 28m lap pool doubling as passive cooling
• Outdoor kitchen + dining for 12
• Meditation deck cantilevered over the ravine
• Off-grid PV array sized for 110% of base load