The most profound commissions will almost always be private landscapes. They involve an intense and continuous collaboration between the client and the designer, and those building the project, and the results are in flux until the last tool has been wielded in its construction. Duncan works very closely with the client to ensure the best possible outcome with the resources available to them, providing the ultimate value for money in guiding the design, approval, and construction process through all the complexities that can be thrown into the path of the project.
Duncan always maintains contact after the commission has been completed to ensure that the evolution of the garden as plants grow, is both managed and documented.
Duncan always maintains contact after the commission has been completed to ensure that the evolution of the garden as plants grow, is both managed and documented.
Garden Refurbishment, Smiths Creek, New South Wales
This project has been for a complete refurbishment of about sixty percent of the garden around the western, southern and eastern sides of the house, and back to the nearest boundary. The design is a reflection of the geometry and materiality of the existing house to hold and consolidate the garden space, make room for the pool and work with the combination of both flat and very steep topography. Included is a new carport/garden shed building set into the batter slope along the southern boundary. Its roof is inspired by @kerstin_thompson_architects @more_kta ‘s use of @fielderssteel #aramax on the ‘Bridge’ accommodation wing at @bundanontrust although this is much, much smaller. The product allows for a gossamer like structure to support the ends of its very long spans, in this instance a parallel flange channel (PFC) ring beam resting upon the walls of the garden shed, and four posts and two piers atop a short blade wall. The PFC also doubles as a gutter on the lower sides, and the last post also doubles as a downpipe. The site is a beautiful hillside rainforest setting, & holds a fine specimen of the critically endangered #rhodamniarubescens tree, which we will plant companions to, along with other endangered species, something I try to do on every project possible to encourage nurseries & clients alike to embed conservation into the fabric of the works.
Great work by @wheatleybuilding, @phat_dab_customs James Buchanan Concrete, @hardwick_concrete , @tobycianilandscaping and Angus Jones of Burringbar Rural Property Maintenance for the expert groundworks and lost form stair welding, aside from the last set used for planters down the side of the big front staircase.
2022-2025 (Duncan Gibbs for private client)
Great work by @wheatleybuilding, @phat_dab_customs James Buchanan Concrete, @hardwick_concrete , @tobycianilandscaping and Angus Jones of Burringbar Rural Property Maintenance for the expert groundworks and lost form stair welding, aside from the last set used for planters down the side of the big front staircase.
2022-2025 (Duncan Gibbs for private client)
Holocene House, Manly, New South Wales
‘Holocene House’ designed and built by CplusC Architects + Builders @__cplusc__ led by @clintoncole_ in the most difficult of building environments, and in close collaboration with me in designing the hardscape and setting out a strong ecological agenda.
This set is focused upon the ‘stone terrace’ that is the main interface between the house and garden and effectively forms another room of the house, albeit with no ceiling or walls. The last drawing shows a rolling table on tracks which didn’t get past the final budgetary hurdles.
Included in the garden is adaptive reuse of materials on site where it was possible, recovery and recycling of demolition materials, an exclusive use of indigenous coastal plant species, as well as adapting the garden to act as a mini wildlife corridor, particularly for the threatened local population of Long-nosed Bandicoots. The species (still small as they are recently planted) are all water wise having evolved over thousands of years to live in this harsh coastal environment. The pool is a natural pool designed in conjunction with @land.forms and incorporates a set of cascades and ponds above the pool extending into the rear garden, and another set that mirrors the entry stairs and flows out to a bigger pond in the front garden. Great clients, fantastic team and spectacular location!
Photographs by @photographybyrenata , and where captioned by @michaellassmanphotography and @felixmooneeram courtesy of @__cplusc__
2019-2023 (Duncan Gibbs with CplusC Architects + Builders for private client)
This set is focused upon the ‘stone terrace’ that is the main interface between the house and garden and effectively forms another room of the house, albeit with no ceiling or walls. The last drawing shows a rolling table on tracks which didn’t get past the final budgetary hurdles.
Included in the garden is adaptive reuse of materials on site where it was possible, recovery and recycling of demolition materials, an exclusive use of indigenous coastal plant species, as well as adapting the garden to act as a mini wildlife corridor, particularly for the threatened local population of Long-nosed Bandicoots. The species (still small as they are recently planted) are all water wise having evolved over thousands of years to live in this harsh coastal environment. The pool is a natural pool designed in conjunction with @land.forms and incorporates a set of cascades and ponds above the pool extending into the rear garden, and another set that mirrors the entry stairs and flows out to a bigger pond in the front garden. Great clients, fantastic team and spectacular location!
Photographs by @photographybyrenata , and where captioned by @michaellassmanphotography and @felixmooneeram courtesy of @__cplusc__
2019-2023 (Duncan Gibbs with CplusC Architects + Builders for private client)
Breezebrick Courtyard House, Greenslopes Brisbane
This brutalist garden, completed in 2019, is set in and around the Breezebrick Courtyard House beautifully designed by @cloud_dwellers at Greenslopes with construction by @dpearceconstructions expertly and professionally undertaken. The house & garden were a haven during the pandemic lockdowns and the garden has now really bedded down in the years after, with it being maintained and experimented on by the owners.
The house was completely remodelled to create a series of courtyards maximising the interpenetration of garden and house. A tight budget and functionalist brief to maximise soil depth wherever possible, create moments of pause, as well as pathways to traverse these sets of courtyards drove a simple iterative theme of circular concrete elements joined in places by straight lines that found voice in structural items, connections made and an expressive house-garden spatial dialogue. The little central courtyard that acts like a Kyoto #tsuboniwa garden. The #rhyolite boulder from Huskdistillers was cut twice and polished to reveal its beautiful grain, provide a contrast to the field face. This is defined by an open room that links to the rear courtyard and the basketball court & pool beyond, where concrete pipes formed the planters around the pool. The front is a courtyard within a courtyard, both providing privacy & a connection to the street life with a seat/planter made from more precast concrete elements.
Photographs by Duncan Gibbs and @andymacpherson.studio as captioned
2018-2019
The house was completely remodelled to create a series of courtyards maximising the interpenetration of garden and house. A tight budget and functionalist brief to maximise soil depth wherever possible, create moments of pause, as well as pathways to traverse these sets of courtyards drove a simple iterative theme of circular concrete elements joined in places by straight lines that found voice in structural items, connections made and an expressive house-garden spatial dialogue. The little central courtyard that acts like a Kyoto #tsuboniwa garden. The #rhyolite boulder from Huskdistillers was cut twice and polished to reveal its beautiful grain, provide a contrast to the field face. This is defined by an open room that links to the rear courtyard and the basketball court & pool beyond, where concrete pipes formed the planters around the pool. The front is a courtyard within a courtyard, both providing privacy & a connection to the street life with a seat/planter made from more precast concrete elements.
Photographs by Duncan Gibbs and @andymacpherson.studio as captioned
2018-2019
Pool Refurbishment & Garden, Murwillumbah
This was Duncan's garden until the beginning of 2025. In it he and his then partner planted hundreds of trees, whilst Duncan dug up and moved small trees & palms to better location, as well as grew what are now rainforest giants from seed. The garden houses a good collection of many different subtropical & tropical plants.
Duncan built the shed from self milled timber, or recycled timber he had collected.
Parts of the old vinyl-lined, tin-shelled above ground pool were kept in place and used as the formwork for the new concrete shell. The existing treated-pine deck was entirely removed and replaced with a suspended concrete slab deck. New stairs were formed in place of the old timber stairs, as well as two new sets of stairs poured, making access to and from the house to many parts of the garden easy. A new back verandah frame in steel supports the roof, with two of the posts also acting as downpipes.
Apart from key moments (the excavator & its driver, the teams that fixed the pool steel, poured the deck slab and sprayed the pool concrete) it was all built by Duncan, or one other hand half the time. The recovery of materials for reuse on other projects from the formwork was reasonably successful.
2004-2024
Duncan built the shed from self milled timber, or recycled timber he had collected.
Parts of the old vinyl-lined, tin-shelled above ground pool were kept in place and used as the formwork for the new concrete shell. The existing treated-pine deck was entirely removed and replaced with a suspended concrete slab deck. New stairs were formed in place of the old timber stairs, as well as two new sets of stairs poured, making access to and from the house to many parts of the garden easy. A new back verandah frame in steel supports the roof, with two of the posts also acting as downpipes.
Apart from key moments (the excavator & its driver, the teams that fixed the pool steel, poured the deck slab and sprayed the pool concrete) it was all built by Duncan, or one other hand half the time. The recovery of materials for reuse on other projects from the formwork was reasonably successful.
2004-2024
Skewed Pool Garden, Robina
This garden is inspired by the idea of crossing Lawrence Halprin & Angela Danadjieva’s Freeway Park brutalist waterfalls with Carlo Scarpa’s Querini Stampalia concrete garden walls on a skewed pool in Robina. Board formed and sealed wet edge pool concrete with strips of the iridescent blue pool mosaics inlaid. The isographic drawing of the pool makes it look square but that's merely an optical illusion. The skewed geometry generated by the house plan's relationship with the lot boundaries and geographic conditions overlooking the estate's golf course, which also doubles as a flood detention basin.
2017-21 (Duncan Gibbs for residential Client)
2017-21 (Duncan Gibbs for residential Client)
Rose Lane Residence Murwillumbah
A mass gravity retaining and access structure on an unstable one-in-one slope between a house and the Tweed River. New terraces were created and paths and steps cut into the slope to dramatically increase the useable space on this very steep site, including improving access to the river.
2012 - 2013 (Duncan Gibbs for residential Client)
2012 - 2013 (Duncan Gibbs for residential Client)
River Street Residence Murwillumbah
Horizontal and vertical surfaces juxtaposed and working to a programme of access and maximum usable space in a small backyard overlooking the Tweed River.
2007 - 2008 (Duncan Gibbs for residential client)
2007 - 2008 (Duncan Gibbs for residential client)
Temporary Carpark, Riverstone Crossing, Upper Coomera
Suburban rooves in grass.
2009 (Duncan Gibbs @ Cardno for Stockland)
2009 (Duncan Gibbs @ Cardno for Stockland)
Tumbulgum Residence
A formal subtropical pleasure garden on the Tweed River. This commission included an extensive approvals process including an integrated Development Application to cover riverbank stabilisation works, a small private beach, a pontoon jetty and a boat ramp. A geometric 'creek-line' water feature with large fish ponds at each end flows from the front entry bridge. Large advanced trees and palms were sourced. Careful grading of the site ensured flood water could be carried away easily. An extensive planting palette has been developed in continuing consultation with the client since the garden's framework was established. Many of the larger broad-leafed tress were planted as tube stock and have now really filled out the garden.
2005 - 2007 (Duncan Gibbs for residential client)
2005 - 2007 (Duncan Gibbs for residential client)
Dover Heights Residence
A terrace on top of a street level garage to a nineteen sixties block of flats, overlooking the Pacific gets a new pergola.
2002 (Duncan Gibbs for residential client)
2002 (Duncan Gibbs for residential client)
Kelvin Grove Residence
A landslip is redesigned as a gabion amphitheatre.
1996 (Duncan Gibbs for residential client)
1996 (Duncan Gibbs for residential client)
Steel River Sculpture Newcastle
A long sandwich of the various hard by-products of smelting and rolling steel rise from the earth and look as though it might fly, tipped with a concrete beak and a corten and stainless wing.
1999 (Duncan Gibbs)
1999 (Duncan Gibbs)
Riverhouse, Riverstone Crossing, Upper Coomera
A big landscape and strata titled community social and recreation facility using big geometries on a small budget.
2008 - 2010 (Duncan Gibbs @ Cardno for Stockland)
2008 - 2010 (Duncan Gibbs @ Cardno for Stockland)
Interlink & Kimberly Clark Industrial Estates, Erskine Park
Big, geometric plantings of indigenous species for big, geometric industrial landscapes.
2006 (Duncan Gibbs @ Sturt Associates for Macquarie Goodman)
2006 (Duncan Gibbs @ Sturt Associates for Macquarie Goodman)
McGregor Crescent Tweed Heads
A proposed multi-unit residential development.
2015 (Duncan Gibbs for developer client)
2015 (Duncan Gibbs for developer client)
