Raw and Resolute – South Coogee House by Renato D’Ettorre Architects

Fusing the raw and resolute with highly detailed and nuanced gestures throughout, South Coogee House is an exploration of space, materiality and form. Renato D’Ettorre Architects combines a highly considered formal approach with an experimental rigor to the coastal residential vernacular.

Built in 1994, South Coogee House sits anchored to its site on a rugged cliff-face and epitomises the longevity of enduring architecture while referencing classic proportions. The house is an early exploration for Renato D’Ettorre Architects and sees the architectonic qualities of its bold and generous form combine with unique and curious engagements with materiality and volume. As a home of contrasts, its durable and raw elements stand steadily against its rough and affecting environs and create a unique shelter for its owners to live in such an envied milieu. Reinterpreting the coastal residential vernacular, the enduring shell that protects the home sits in vast contrast to the refined and smooth interior experience.

Spread over two levels, South Coogee House accesses ocean views to the north and the south headlands and its positioning allows a seemingly full immersion within nature. Below, as the rockface interacts with the ocean, a stirring drama is created and the theatre of its weather patterns and migrating and feeding animals plays out across its seasonal calendar. The external shell takes heeded influence from its context, with a predominantly concrete structure balanced by glass, brick and sandstone elements. The natural and textural nature of its comprising parts encourage an ageing and patina over time, where the environment stamps its own narrative on the architecture. It also allows for the passage of time to be expressed and make its mark on the built world. The resulting palette is one of naturally occurring patterns of reds, ochres and greys.

Internally, the experience is deliberately contrasting, offering both a place of reprise, while matching the robustness of its outer layer. The interplay with light, reflections and adjacent marine sounds engulf the home through its rhythmic openings and classically spaced vertical support elements. Openings are curated with directed views outward, connecting the inside with the surrounding landscape. Running the length of the home, the colonnade is punctuated by skylight openings from above, while connecting the movement within the home with the ocean through its openings. Coming together as a series of geometries on plan, these key connecting bridges and walkways connect the home in a direct and linear way, offering formality to its more intimate spaces.

South Coogee House offers vast internal volumes and a matched sense of grandeur from approach. Its sense of permanence is reinforced in its materiality and emphasised verticality. Renato D’Ettorre Architects has created a beautifully resilient display of form, expressed through its raw and subtly changing outer layers.