Luxury and refinement at the country estate with everything
It’s the perfect weekender for Sydneysiders with a wide social circle – and deep pockets
It’s the perfect weekender for Sydneysiders with a wide social circle – and deep pockets
The term estate tends to get overused in real estate circles these days – but not in this case.
Set among 12.1ha of park-like grounds, this gracious home at 1620 Kangaloon Road, Kangaloon in the Southern Highlands has everything country living is known for, all within easy reach of Sydney.
The main residence is a single level, architect-designed home with seven bedrooms and four bathrooms spread across the floorplan. Entry is via a tree-lined walkway leading to a spacious reception area. A north-facing open plan living area leads to multiple spaces for dining, entertaining or just relaxing to take in the view of the lake from the veranda.
The kitchen, including a 3m long Italiana stone island benchtop, is ideal for servicing small groups or a crowd, with a butler’s pantry and ample storage.
Thermal comfort is maintained year round, thanks to heated floors, reverse cycle aircon and fireplaces, ideal for creating a little atmosphere on cold winter evenings.
Beyond the main house, a self-contained cottage with two bedrooms on the upper floor is ideal for guests.
But this is just the start of what is on offer at this address, which includes seven fenced paddocks and a competition-sized equestrian arena, as well as orange, mandarin and lime orchards and espaliered lemon trees.
Positioned 16km south of Bowral, it is just 6km from the historic village of Robertson.
Address: 1620 Kangaloon Road, Kangaloon
Auction: 11am March 12
Open for inspection: Saturday March 4, 2.30pm-3.30pm
Price guide: $13 million
Agent: Ben Olofsen, The Agency 0419 019 423 theagency.com.au
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
A new AI-driven account by leading landscape architect Jon Hazelwood pushes the boundaries on the role of ‘complex nature’ in the future of our cities
Drifts of ground cover plants and wildflowers along the steps of the Sydney Opera House, traffic obscured by meadow-like planting and kangaroos pausing on city streets.
This is the way our cities could be, as imagined by landscape architect Jon Hazelwood, principal at multi-disciplinary architectural firm Hassell. He has been exploring the possibilities of rewilding urban spaces using AI for his Instagram account, Naturopolis_ai with visually arresting outcomes.
“It took me a few weeks to get interesting results,” he said. “I really like the ephemeral nature of the images — you will never see it again and none of those plants are real.
“The AI engine makes an approximation of a grevillea.”
Hazelwood chose some of the most iconic locations in Australia, including the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, as well as international cities such as Paris and London, to demonstrate the impact of untamed green spaces on streetscapes, plazas and public space.
He said he hopes to provoke a conversation about the artificial separation between our cities and the broader environment, exploring ways to break down the barriers and promote biodiversity.
“A lot of the planning (for public spaces) is very limited,” Hazelwood said. “There are 110,000 species of plants in Australia and we probably use about 12 in our (public) planting schemes.
“Often it’s for practical reasons because they’re tough and drought tolerant — but it’s not the whole story.”
Hazelwood pointed to the work of UK landscape architect Prof Nigel Dunnett, who has championed wild garden design in urban spaces. He has drawn interest in recent years for his work transforming the brutalist apartment block at the Barbican in London into a meadow-like environment with diverse plantings of grasses and perennials.
Hazelwood said it is this kind of ‘complex nature’ that is required for cities to thrive into the future, but it can be hard to convince planners and developers of the benefits.
“We have been doing a lot of work on how we get complex nature because complexity of species drives biodiversity,” he said.
“But when we try to propose the space the questions are: how are we going to maintain it? Where is the lawn?
“A lot of our work is demonstrating you can get those things and still provide a complex environment.”
At the moment, Hassell together with the University of Melbourne is trialling options at the Hills Showground Metro Station in Sydney, where the remaining ground level planting has been replaced with more than 100 different species of plants and flowers to encourage diversity without the need for regular maintenance. But more needs to be done, Hazelwood said.
“It needs bottom-up change,” he said. ““There is work being done at government level around nature positive cities, but equally there needs to be changes in the range of plants that nurseries grow, and in the way our city landscapes are maintained and managed.”
And there’s no AI option for that.
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’