Under Stars and Sky
Berrima, Southern Highlands
Under Stars and Sky is a small off-grid cabin for two on working farmland a few minutes outside Berrima in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, designed by AO Design Studio and built by hand by its owners over three years. The architect's own site calls it the Stargazing Eco Cabin and sets it against the traditional slab huts dotted around Berrima and the wider Highlands, contemporary work on local ground: "This small-scale retreat is hand-crafted to provide an intimate and immersive off-grid experience." and "Working closely with the owner, the tailor-made cabin was crafted from locally sourced materials like stone, timber, and traditional building methods." The owners put the recipe in a line: "Blackbutt timber milled on-site, a sandstone blade wall, a curved galvanised steel roof. Off-grid, solar-powered, and entirely your own." The blade wall carries the structure, divides the rooms and hides the services; a mezzanine bedroom has skylights over the bed and an observatory loft above; the walls are thick, an awning is louvred, and solar with a battery, bore water, big rainwater tanks and a wood-burning stove keep it off the grid, with native bush regeneration around it.
The card is the first frame of the post it was seen through, photographed by Claudia Farrar: the box window seat lined in the same timber as the walls, floor and beams, its pale cushion, a grey knitted blanket thrown over the edge, a sheepskin cushion and a bolster, and through the corner glazing the green paddock and its scattered gum trees under a blue sky.
AO Design Studio
AO Design Studio is an architecture and interiors office in Bowral in the Southern Highlands, established in 2020 by the registered architect Tony O'Meara.
aodesignstudio.com.au · Instagram
Under Stars and Sky
Under Stars and Sky is the owners' name for the cabin, which they built by hand on their Southern Highlands farmland and now let to guests; its own account carries the stars-from-bed photographs.
Architecture and interiors AO Design Studio (@ao_designstudio). Photography Claudia Farrar (@claudiafarrarphoto). Builder Darren Clancy (@understarsandsky). Interior styling Sharon Misko (@sharonmisko). Selections LUCI.D (@lucid.interiors). Landscape design Maia Campos Landscapes. Seen via @co_architecture_au.
The picture comes from this post on Instagram, with more in a second post.
Researched September 2026. I credit each piece as carefully as I can; if you know more about this one, message me on Instagram.