Sand House Bronte | Esoteriko | 2026 | 澳大利亚
There’s respect for materiality and then there’s Anna Trefely’s respect for materiality. For Sand House Bronte, an imposing two-storey family home with enviable views of Bronte Beach, the Esoteriko founder spent countless hours researching materials – some of them deeply left of field – that would resolutely anchor this dwelling to its location in form, texture and palette.
It started with a handful of sand. For the clients, long-time Bronte locals with an abiding connection to the location, the sand encapsulated their vision for their home – deeply connected to place and awash with tones drawn from the natural world. “They have a very strong relationship to Bronte – something I understand because I grew up around there, too,” says Trefely. “And they wanted the home to almost feel like it was part of the beach. They would go for walks and collect sand and small rocks and pieces of kelp that had washed up and bring them to me and say, ‘This is what we want the space to feel like.’”These collected objects – which Trefely describes as flotsam and jetsam – were the tokens of a rigorous interrogation into materials that “evoked the textures and colours that essentially you see from the balcony”. Combined, they imbue Sand House Bronte – the work of Luigi Rosselli Architects and MCK Architects – with an intrinsic sense of belonging to place.
Nothing demonstrates Trefely’s process more succinctly than the kitchen island. Her original concept was two-fold: an enormous sandstone boulder as the base, a sliver of stainless steel for the top. “We had this idea of getting a boulder from somewhere local and putting it there,” she explains. “Admittedly, we went a little wild with our intentions to start, but that was something the client also fully supported – she was really invested in the material selection.” Ultimately, the boulder proved too impractical. Instead, Trefely sourced a stunning piece of travertine from a trusted stone supplier. “It has this lovely rough, craggy texture and the colour is very similar to sandstone.” Essentially, it passed the ‘kick test’, Trefely’s measure of durability and staying power. “We looked at a lot of different stones, but they didn’t quite pass the test the way this stone did.”The top also presented complexities. Forged from 316 marine-grade stainless steel – chosen to cope with the salt-laden environment – the Esoteriko team put it through its paces to ensure the benchtop was a practical choice for a family whose lifestyle centres around cooking and entertaining. “We did quite a bit of sampling to get the right grit sandpaper to orbitally sand the steel, making sure it was something that wasn’t going to be hard to manage on a daily basis. The sanding just takes off some of the sheen and creates a really usable surface.”
A nod to surfboards, fibreglass makes an appearance in a series of exquisite lights by Newcastle-based artisan Amy Vidler – “the quality of light that passes through fibreglass is so ethereal” – while the bathrooms feature sliced pebbles underfoot, a material Trefely wanted to incorporate from the very beginning of the design process. “Basically they’re small river stones that are very rounded because they’ve been washed over constantly by flowing water. They’re sliced in half and then sheeted like mosaics. We love them because they’re very reminiscent of a sandy beach and walking on them is almost like experiencing a session of reflexology.”Against this boundary-pushing material palette, Trefely returned to the flotsam and jetsam concept throughout Sand House Bronte, peppering the expansive negative spaces with judiciously curated furniture, artwork and artisanal objects. “There are quite vast areas of space in the house, which the clients really loved and really wanted to keep very minimal, very clean. We were looking at that negative space and thinking, ‘Oh, it’s almost like a vast beach.’ So we tried to create these moments of intimacy with furniture settings and detailing around joinery as well as with objects.”
The entry encapsulates that thinking: the double-height circulation space features just one object: an oversized vintage shell sourced by stylist Jack Milenkovic from 506070 in Sydney’s Potts Point. “The idea was to have this quite sculptural piece make a statement as you enter the house. We really loved the idea that it looked like it literally just got washed up on the beach,” says Trefely.Judicious surges of colour punctuate the ultra-minimalist spaces – a mustard bedhead in a bedroom, a vintage turquoise chair in a living area, coloured stone in the bathrooms and, most notably, a custom 30-square-metre green rug that grounds the main living area and is the home’s own version of a grassy knoll. “The colour was literally pulled from the green grass of the park you can see below, and it has a little bit of hand-carving in it that represents the water wrapping up onto the sand and leaving its imprint.”
Amid the very subtle, sand-toned colour scheme, the dark timber kitchen comes as something of a shock, which pleases Trefely no end. “I think the kitchen needed to create attention and to be a moment of contrast in the quite wide, vast space. I think if it was just whitewashed timber, the result would be disappointing.” The owners were ardent fans of the deep red tones of rosewood, most often associated with modernist Brazilian architecture. But Trefely steered them towards more eco-friendly Australian spotted gum. “It still has those really rich red tones that the owners love.” Large banks of timber joinery by Finch Projects cocoon the kitchen, creating a dramatic presence in the floor plan.The last signature element of the home is the art. One stand-out piece reflects the key role materiality plays here. It’s a work by Belgian artisan Ben Storms, who frequently works with metal, inflating it with air to create three-dimensional artworks that possess an intrinsic sense of the organic. In early conversations between the artist and Trefely, she mentioned the 361 marine-grade stainless steel, a material he’d never worked with before. “Then he agreed to make this piece with the steel and I think it really connects the work very specifically to this site.” Hung in the ocean-facing living room, it is a testament to everything that defines Sand House Bronte.
Architecture by MCK Architects
Build by JBC Constructions
Interior Design by Esoteriko
Artwork by Tamara Dean
Artwork by Oscar Nimmo
Artwork by Ben Storms
Artwork by Judy Watson
- 转载自：The Local Project
- 图片@The Local Project
- 语言：英语
- 编辑：序赞网
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