Urban Sea House
Urban Sea House rejects the idea of simply dropping a city dwelling onto a coastal site. Instead, it lets material and place shape the architecture.
Although the clients first imagined something closer to the urban sensibilities of Melbourne and Chicago, the house gradually shifted toward a more grounded response to its site. The coastal context is felt not as a motif but as an undertone. For Daniel Boddam, who grew up on the same street, the project became an exercise in understanding the specific grain of the place: the limestone underfoot, the soundscape, the way houses meet the ground from street to doorstep, the character of the planting, as well as how each might inform a contemporary domestic structure.
The house sits on a limestone base that references the area’s historic stonework, while the garage is integrated into the main volume, allowing planting to take over the frontage and soften the building’s relationship with the public realm. Across four levels, landscape becomes an organising element, breaking down the mass and shaping the residence as a sequence of connected interior and exterior spaces.
Inside, bedrooms sit lower in the building, while the living, kitchen and dining spaces are positioned above, closer to natural light and long coastal views. This arrangement shapes the daily experience of the home; shared spaces feel open and outward-looking, while private rooms are more contained. For Boddam, this structure is closely tied to his understanding of restraint. “Restraint to me means simplicity and freedom,” he says. “I favour uncluttered environments that make use of natural light and have an abundance of space, which creates a sense of luxury.” The result is a place where clarity and ease guide movement, and space itself does much of the work.
Its most expressive moment is the sculpted kitchen, where curved stone edges form a technically ambitious island that the client embraced as a defining feature.
The same approach carries through the material palette, with travertine, stucco, timber and brass used consistently to create continuity across rooms. Its most expressive moment is the sculpted kitchen, where curved stone edges form a technically ambitious island that the client embraced as a defining feature. Against the composure of the wider interior, this stunning gesture is given room to hold attention without overwhelming the broader architectural language.
Environmental performance was considered alongside these design decisions, though the process was not without some tension. “The amount of excavation was in conflict with the environmental performance of the project,” Boddam explains. What had seemed straightforward became more complex when rock was found six metres lower than the geotechnical report had indicated, requiring significant additional reinforcement. In response, the project leans on durability elsewhere: robust, low-maintenance materials intended to last, solar cells, energy-efficient lighting and charred timber cladding to the upper level.
Urban Sea House is ultimately a study in context, proportion and material continuity. Looking ahead, Boddam hopes the house will be remembered as “being timeless and not in or out of fashion, which would be a testament to simplicity”. In a culture saturated with highly mediated images of domestic life, this project offers a quieter proposition: that enduring architecture is built through measured decisions, consistency and a sustained commitment to place.
