PHOTO: Blue Mountains property
As the 25th instalment of the James Bond franchise, No Time to Die, lights up the screens of cinemas around the country, one home owner has been living out his very own Bond fantasy on a 65-hectare property in the Blue Mountains.
Entrepreneur and art dealer Steven Nasteski partnered with Steve Shelley and Erika Krebs-Woodward to buy Invisible House, a residence designed by one of the country’s most lauded architects, Peter Stutchbury.
“I’ve always been a James Bond fan,” Nasteski says.
“To me, [Invisible House] completely resembled a house that would be in a James Bond movie – in the middle of nowhere, with extraordinary views and architecture.”
Named Australian House of the Year and winner of the British Architects Award for International Excellence, Invisible House is not your average rural property.
Set on the western slopes of the Blue Mountains between Oberon and Hampton, a 50-kilometre drive west of Katoomba, the home is positioned to capture majestic views over the Megalong and Kanimbla Valleys.
Tucked into the ridgeline for protection from the elements, the house features a combination of off-form concrete, Mudgee stacked stone, steel, brass, copper and hoop pine.
Waves of plywood line the ceiling in the open-plan living room where you’ll find a wood-burning fireplace, an industrial-style kitchen and huge glass sliders opening onto the outdoor spaces.
There’s a second living space to the north, a central study or fifth bedroom, and a distinctive main bathroom with a concrete soaker tub and brass rainwater shower.
The home has been designed to weather heat-wave summers and snowed-in winters.
“We’ve had some extraordinary winters here when it looked like Switzerland,” says Nasteski.
“We’ve had a snow dump of 50 to 60 centimetres and with snow all around us in a blizzard, you can see how it might look like a Bond film, with Bond about to come down and kill a villain.”
Nasteski says he was besotted by both the house and the wild surrounds and wanted to turn Invisible House into his “forever country home”.
This meant transforming the property into a “legitimate James Bond residence”.
“I wanted to turn this into probably the greatest Australian bush retreat, potentially one of the greatest in the world, so I sat down and thought ‘what does it need?’”
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