Sorrento Bathhouse
Sorrento, Victoria
2020 - 2024
Sorrento Bathhouse is a coastal project in Sorrento, Victoria, exploring atmosphere, enclosure, and retreat through light, proportion, and deliberate spatial sequence. We begin with light, shelter, and orientation. The project is shaped as an interior world that offers relief from exposure, using restraint and careful calibration to create a sense of quiet luxury that feels intentional and timeless.
The architecture is organised as a sequence rather than a statement. Spaces are composed to slow the body and settle the mind. Thresholds are thickened. Light is filtered and borrowed, allowed to arrive with softness rather than glare. Shadow is treated as a positive condition, giving the interiors depth and a calm intensity.
In a coastal environment, durability is inseparable from atmosphere. Materials must hold their character under salt air and sun. The palette is limited and resolved with discipline so the building can weather with dignity, and so patina reads as belonging rather than decline.
Project Architect: Ben Schmideg
Photography by Timothy Kaye
Winner in Resi New: Up to 1M | Architeam Awards 2025
Shortlisted in Hospitality Design | Australian Interior Design Awards 2025
Featured in The Local Project and Yinji Space.
Related Editorial:Atmosphere as the Vessel for Life, Brutalism as Shelter, The Architecture of Temporariness.
'“Nestled quietly into the corner of this suburban coastal allotment, the Sorrento Bathhouse has successfully executed a project that explores the beauty found in simplicity, through the delicate balance between space, light and form.”
Jury, Architeam Awards
“Pragmatic, yet profound, the rigour placed in the detailing and choice in a palette of monochromatic, yet warm materials has created a space of refuge and calm, that subtly reference the ethereal work of Philip Johnson and experiential qualities of a Japanese onsen.”
Jury, Architeam Awards
“Located centrally, the spa takes pride of place, with carefully curated anti-rooms that offer utility, but also luxury through their connection to the surrounds, celebrating the rituals in bathing and the joy found in slowing down. The result is an architecture of quiet luxury - refined, intentional and timeless.”
Jury, Architeam Awards
