Commercial Design, Hospitality Design, Interior DesignFlorence LMay 14, 2026Luxury Accommodations, Hospitality Design

KAVILLO STUDIOS || Where Rural Vernacular Meets Sculptural Precision in Mudgee

Commercial Design, Hospitality Design, Interior DesignFlorence LMay 14, 2026Luxury Accommodations, Hospitality Design

Mudgee's rural architecture has always spoken plainly, with rammed-earth walls, corrugated-iron roofs, and materials chosen for durability over display, but at Kavillo Studios, that same vocabulary is being used to say something new.

Designed by Cameron Anderson Architects and realized by sculptor-owner Michael Ferris, Kavillo Studios is a luxury accommodation retreat set within the agricultural landscape of Mudgee, New South Wales. Completed in 2024, the project draws directly from its regional context, referencing the galvanized shearing sheds and pisé buildings that define this part of rural Australia, while reinterpreting those materials through a distinctly sculptural and contemporary lens.

*The asymmetric folding roofline of Kavillo Studios rises from a rammed earth plinth, its corrugated metal cladding echoing the shearing sheds that define the Mudgee agricultural landscape.*

Ferris, a practicing artist, approached the project with the sensibility of someone accustomed to thinking about form, tension, and presence in three dimensions. The result is a series of compact studio structures, each 40 square metres, that read less as buildings and more as objects placed deliberately within the landscape. The geometry is complex without being gratuitous; a raking rammed-earth wall grounds each structure to its plinth at the south-west corner, while a folding sheet-metal roof form drapes over the internal program below, evoking the taut, tent-like quality of a campsite shelter resolved in permanent materials.

*An aerial view reveals the compound's considered placement within the golden Mudgee paddocks, each studio positioned as a sculptural object within, rather than upon, the landscape.*

That roofline is doing considerable architectural work. On the south-west, the heavy rammed-earth wall provides privacy from adjacent structures while absorbing and radiating the site’s thermal mass. To the north, the folding roof opens via a glazed door to admit winter sun, creating a building that responds to seasonal conditions without mechanical complexity. The corrugated metal cladding, drawn from the palette of working farm buildings in the region, sits in productive tension with the refined interior detailing within.

Inside, the handcrafted quality that Ferris brings as an artist is evident throughout. Olive green cabinetry sits against rammed earth feature walls beneath exposed dark timber beams, while terracotta zellige tiles line the bathroom walls beneath a skylight, bringing natural light into the most intimate spaces. The material warmth is consistent and considered; nothing feels imported or out of place. Each finish connects back to the landscape outside, reinforcing the sense that the studios belong specifically here, in this paddock, in this region.

*Warm textiles and a boucle bedhead sit beneath a vaulted ceiling, the bedroom's corner window framing a direct view to the surrounding paddocks and native plantings beyond.*

*The generous living space of the studio opens to the expansive landscape.*

The property has since expanded to include a communal events space, extending the studios' architectural language into a shared gathering environment. Set within the same rammed earth, timber, and steel palette, the open-air structure sits lightly in the landscape and centres a food-over-fire concept that makes cooking a social, visible act. The expansion positions Kavillo not simply as a place to stay, but as a layered rural experience, one where architecture, landscape, and hospitality inform one another at every turn.

*The outdoor event space carries a similar architectural language as the studios.*

What Kavillo Studios ultimately demonstrates is that regional vernacular architecture need not be left behind in pursuit of contemporary luxury. In the hands of a sculptor who understood both the land and its history, galvanized steel and rammed earth become the basis for something precise, poetic, and entirely of its place.