Sorrento Beach House
Sorrento Beach House is a new beach house located on Sullivan’s Bay, Victoria’s first settlement site in 1803.
In response to the significance of place and a sombre history, it avoids whimsy and stands as a robust and austere object in the landscape.
From the street, the home appears guarded, a place of shelter and privacy. From the water’s edge, and looking back, it is relaxed, light and open.
Inside, light penetrates the living and entertaining zones and the open plan area with internal courtyards is surrounded by views of the ocean and beach.
The ceiling in the living area features timber fragments patterned to reflect exact star formations over the site. The external ground, boulder steps, and internal floors feature a local stone, referencing the earth itself.
Site Coordinates 
Constellations in the night sky 
Constellations in the night sky 
Constellations in the night sky 
Resulting fragments 
Resulting fragments 
Upstairs, the sleeping quarters are cocooned by concrete surfaces with punched out windows and deep timber sills, bathed in light that is filtered through external slotted timber screens.
The conceptual heart of Sorrento Beach House is in the way the varied experiences of openness and enclosure, gravity and lightness, concrete, timber and stone coalesce to form a unified whole, connecting with its site and its occupants.
“There is so much to like about this home – the robust and substantial design, meticulous attention to detail, the materiality, the interaction between outside and in, and the way the outstanding view has been framed and captured at every angle…This is a house you would not want to leave and most definitely want to visit. “
Inside Magazine, issue 90, March-April, 2016.
“The main bedroom is intended to be a comfortable retreat for the owner, a place to read, to survey the landscape, to sleep, to wash, to listen to the sounds of the sea and feel a close connection to place. “
Mezzanine Magazine, Summer Edition, 2017.
