They Grew a Three-Story Jungle Inside a City Apartment
What if you could swap the concrete jungle for a real one? Right in the heart of Perth, Nicole and Drew have grown a three-story indoor jungle inside their 134 square metre loft apartment. With more than 500 plants layered from the courtyard floor all the way to the upper loft, this extraordinary home completely redefines what apartment living can look and feel like.
Step through the front door and the city simply disappears. What was once a fairly ordinary apartment has evolved into a lush urban rainforest filled with tropical plants, climbing vines, moss poles, living walls and water features. It is an immersive example of biophilic design, where architecture and nature are intentionally woven together to create a calming, restorative home environment.
The apartment unfolds across three levels, with a central courtyard forming the green heart of the space. Instead of treating it as a simple outdoor area, Nicole and Drew transformed it into a thriving ecosystem. Plants spill upward, blurring the line between indoors and outdoors and creating dramatic vertical layers that give the home its three-story scale.
Upstairs, towering philodendrons climb custom moss poles that simulate tree trunks, allowing aerial roots to attach and grow just as they would in a rainforest. The top level embraces warmth and light with a cactus-filled loft, a relaxed cinema area and even an infrared sauna. Every level has been designed to work with natural airflow, light exposure and microclimates within the apartment.
What makes this indoor jungle apartment even more impressive is that it is not chaotic or high maintenance. It is intelligent, engineered and surprisingly efficient. The courtyard runs on a multi-zone irrigation system, moss poles are fed through hidden watering lines and ventilation moves thousands of cubic metres of air through the home each hour, reducing the need for air conditioning. Humidity is carefully managed, grow lights supplement natural light and watering schedules are optimised so that maintenance remains minimal despite the scale of the greenery.
This is far more than decorating with houseplants. It is an integrated indoor ecosystem built around sustainable design principles.
Natural materials like timber and stone sit comfortably alongside the greenery, reinforcing the home’s strong biophilic identity. In the bathroom, plants cascade around the shower, turning everyday routines into something that feels almost like bathing in a forest. Feature walls incorporate fossils and textured finishes, adding layers of detail and personality. Aquariums introduce another living dimension to the space, while the couple’s eclectic design style gives the apartment a bold, maximalist character.
Over the course of a year, Nicole and Drew invested significant time, energy and resources into transforming their loft into this urban rainforest sanctuary. The result is a plant-filled apartment that challenges traditional ideas of city living. It proves that you do not need acres of land to feel connected to nature. With creativity, experimentation and a willingness to learn, even a city apartment can become a thriving indoor jungle.
For anyone interested in biophilic design, indoor gardening, sustainable apartment living or urban rainforest homes, this three-story jungle stands as a powerful reminder of what is possible when imagination meets dedication. To follow along with Drew and Nicole's incredible plant-filled apartment journey, you can find them on instagram here.
