GRUYERE FARM 

INTERIOR DESIGN
Studio Manifold

FURNITURE ART & OBJECT
Simone Haag 

LANDSCAPE
Eckersley Garden Architecture 

PHOTOGRAPHY
Traianos Pakioufakis

2025 IDEA AWARDS
Award for Residential Interior Curation

Gruyere Farm, resting within Victoria’s gently undulating Yarra Valley, is a welcoming antidote to the noise and sparkle of city life. Designed by John Pizzey in 1986, the home has been reimagined via a design intervention led by Simone Haag and Studio Manifold to preserve its mid-century gestures while enhancing efficiency and functionality and cloaking it in gilded comfort. Materials and textures play a pivotal role in establishing a tactile, grounded atmosphere with wide board timber and stone walls, terrazzo, ceramic tiles, and raw brass echoing the rugged beauty of the surrounding landscape.

An Australiana narrative—resilient, textured, and enduring—has been crafted within a design scheme that began with a gently, preserving the character of the original residence, before unfolding to include a respectful yet comprehensive resurrection of the kitchen and a guest wing added in the 90s, and the introduction of a honeyed schematic and visual fluidity throughout.

Drawing inspiration from the existing fabric and working-farm context, a native palette of resilient materials has been dovetailed with carefully selected vintage and contemporary furnishings, artwork, and lighting to forge a quality akin to a deep, concentrated sigh. A home where a turquoise and olive colour story finds an alliance with the tempered tones of the surrounding landscape to elicit a nuanced, layered and profoundly welcoming spirit.