Attentively Anchored – Bronte House by Tobias Partners

Navigating its steeply sloping terrain, the multiples levels of Bronte House anchor to its site attentively as terraces and apertures overlook enviable coastal ocean views. Tobias Partners dissect the whole and propose a series of stepped elements that comprise the home, offering meaningful connections to outdoor spaces.

Clean lines and crisp openings connect the interior lived experience of Bronte House with its expansive surrounding ocean views, as curated sightlines out toward the ocean and adjacent beach make the home feel as though it is floating. Anchored to its steep and sloping site in Sydney’s Bronte, the same named home captures the essence of the coastal abode through its casual and free flowing floor plan and large and generous offerings of the ocean beyond. Together with a contemporary restraint and an honest expression of the comprising materiality, a timeless and classically proportioned home unfolds. Tobias Partners create a series of intentional connections through a stepped formal approach, connecting the indoor and outdoor and dismantling the built edge as the traditional home’s boundary, and instead encouraging the overflow into the encompassing terrace spaces.

Tobias Partners create a series of intentional connections through a stepped formal approach, connecting the indoor and outdoor and dismantling the built edge as the traditional home’s boundary, and instead encouraging the overflow into the encompassing terrace spaces.

Built by Join Constructions, together with engineering by Partridge, as a keystone to the principles of Bronte House is the considered and responsive connection to its site. Instead of designing as a sculpture to be placed on a site, the site itself informs the resulting architecture. A 13-metre level change stretches from street level to the site’s highest point and in turn determines the varying levels and how they intersect with the site. A close collaboration with Sticks and Stones Landscape Design extends the vision of the home out to its multiple surrounding terrace spaces, acting as extensions of the interior areas and their own private sanctuaries to retreat to, while offering natural cross ventilation and access to natural illumination throughout the day.

Looking out over Bronte Beach and the Pacific Ocean, Bronte House hugs its steep terrain and in turn appears peeking out only slightly as it navigates and transverses up its site. The use of off-form concrete further emphasises its heftiness and reinforces a sense of permanence and longevity, cementing the form to its sloping topography. As a counterbalance to the cool starkness of the masonry elements, darkened timber features as a textural relief, adding a natural touch. Metal and natural stone then feature heavily to complete the palette of contrasting and enduring surfaces, to see the home remain relevant over time. With the lower levels housing the garage, swimming pool and guest quarters, the middle level see the open living and entertaining areas open to their respective terrace and a lush grassed courtyard space, with the bedrooms and bathrooms topping out the home.

Looking out over Bronte Beach and the Pacific Ocean, Bronte House hugs its steep terrain and in turn appears peeking out only slightly as it navigates and transverses up its site.

Bronte House sees Tobias Partners connect to its challenging site and turn its steep slope into a series of opportunities to engage with the surrounding ocean and carve out unique engagements with the views beyond.