An Enviable Outlook – Bondi Beach House by Mathieson Architects

Rarely does such an icon of an area become the main view from a home, yet Bondi Beach House sits enviably located overlooking the famed Icebergs below. Mathieson Architects cleverly enhances the challenging site to ensure clean lines and restraint allow the surrounding view to be the focus.

Despite its narrow allotment, Bondi Beach House rises confidently upward, to embrace its opportune location on each of its four levels. Similar in gest to many Sydney homes, the sloping terrain is navigated by way of extending a series of volumes vertically across accessible levels, stacking functional elements on top of each other. Although not a terrace as such, there are shared ideas that make its way into the resulting form, where the vertical and a generous internal floor to ceiling height ensures an increased sense of scale is felt. There is an evolution in play, where Mathieson Architects take cues from the traditional terraces of the area and morph them into its crisp and cleanly articulated contemporary.

Primely located, it was imperative that the resulting home embody a similar sense of calm that the ocean allows, while also becoming the ideal outpost for the lively hub of popularity and activity happening below.

Built by Bellevarde, Bondi Beach House occupies a mere 120 square metre site and yet, through its verticality, ensures none of the elements that make a home are left out. With views out to the ocean and over its namesake, Bondi Beach, the home also overlooks one of the more notable and undeniably most visited hospitality venues in the area, Icebergs. Primely located, it was imperative that the resulting home embody a similar sense of calm that the ocean allows, while also becoming the ideal outpost for the lively hub of popularity and activity happening below. Through the use of a controlled palette of monochromatic elements, there is an entrenched serenity felt throughout.

Accessed from the ground level, an entry hall and two bedrooms await as they nestle into the site. Opening to a courtyard and an open terrace at opposite ends, the home and its overscale volumes liberally embrace the ocean and landscape. Cleared thresholds then sit flush throughout, allowing for uninterrupted access between inside and out, where large full-scale glazing elements permit visual access and encourage natural ventilation to sweep through the levels. Binding each of the levels is a marble clad staircase with floating treads underfoot, continuing the narrative of openness and connection.

Built by Bellevarde, Bondi Beach House occupies a mere 120 square metre site and yet, through its verticality, ensures none of the elements that make a home are left out.

Through a balancing of elements, Bondi Beach House by Mathieson Architects uses a clean palette and embraces its surrounds, elevating the connection of the home to its context and continue the story of its place.