Luke Moloney is a Sydney-based architect who also likes to work in the ‘country’.
In Australia, that phrase speaks to the vast rural landscapes beyond the city. The kind of open, ancient terrain you find in places like the Southern Highlands, where his acclaimed Highlands House sits as a modern sanctuary in the hills.
Luke designs with a reverence for place. He thinks hard about each site, trying to understand its particular character, then treads softly; shaping buildings that feel at ease with their surroundings. The work aims to be quiet, built to last and to gently elevate the day-to-day for the people living there — turning routine into something closer to ritual.
Back in Sydney, his studio is a small considered gathering of old friends, which he describes simply as “a lovely way to work”.
How does your day typically begin?
By meeting my brother Guy for a dawn walk by the harbour, or going up into Balmain to the gym. This sounds virtuous. Sleepiness and inertia not shown.
How do you prepare your preferred cup of tea or coffee?
Strong preference is for someone else to prepare! It always tastes nicer when I haven’t been involved.
Is there a daily ritual you protect at all costs?
I go in very early to the studio (it’s around the corner from home) before anyone else gets in to open the blinds and let in the light with the morning air. To me it always feels optimistic - what will this day be like I wonder… Then wander downhill to the park to take the schnauzers for their walk.
What is one object you have owned for a long time and still use often?
My grandmother’s egg beaters – a splendid steel contraption, riveted like an old steamship, its timber handle softened by long use. And it works. The moving parts whir and glide as though cushioned by air. It must be nearly a hundred years old, and I’ve not seen its match anywhere.
Describe a space in your home that you feel best reflects who you are.
The sock drawer. Neat front. Reasonable to assume all’s in order. Internal chaos.
What does home mean to you?
Sanctuary. Community. I get a strong sense of each in Balmain where I live. It’s very much a wave-to-your-neighbours-pat-the-dogs sort of a place… a village with a clear sense of itself, wrapped on three sides by the harbour, in the middle of this beautiful city.
What is your favourite ‘unnecessary’ pleasure at home?
Canary yellow tapware; it makes me happy every day.
What excites you about the future of architectural design, and how does it shape the homes we live in?
The sense that the bar is rising higher and higher – there are so many practitioners producing beautiful work, it’s wonderful to think what else is around the corner. I think this shapes the homes we live in through an increasingly design-literate public whose aspirations are shifting from the prosaic to the poetic, tied to heightened consciousness about sustainability and environmental responsibility through design.
What has been a highlight of your career as an architect so far?
Last year I was asked by the European Cultural Commission to participate in an exhibition they were putting on for the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. I sent a few images of my projects to hang in this glorious palazzo on the Grand Canal. I hadn’t been to Venice so went along for the opening week. Intoxicating. I wish I could’ve bottled the feeling.
What is your current favourite architectural project — private or public — by another architect?
It’s always Jorn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House. A miracle made manifest in concrete and gleaming tile; in Sydney we’re fortunate to have it on the doorstep. A piece of architecture at once modern and ancient; of quiet serenity, yet it electrifies and activates the space around it. Every reason to go there becomes an Occasion, and just a glimpse of it improves your day.
