How bureau^proberts designed Spyre Group's Glasshouse at Burleigh Heads
Glasshouse by Spyre Group is set to become a landmark for years to come on the Burleigh Heads dress circle, Goodwin Terrace, which is already lined with some of the Gold Coast's most architecturally impressive apartment developments.
Glasshouse already homes one of the most expensive apartments in Queensland, a two-level penthouse which was recently snapped up by an interstate purchaser for a record $20 million.
Spyre Group, who have created a number of striking projects up and down South East Queensland from Brisbane to Coolangatta, knew the importance of the securing the right architect for the rare site.
They gave the renowned architecture firm bureau^proberts a simple but powerful brief, "create the impossible."
Bureau^proberts Project Design Leader Dan Liddy says Glasshouse' brings something stridently new to Burleigh Heads.
"From the outset Spyre were clear in their pursuit for an unrepeatable outcome, expressively crafted and uniquely Burleigh. As such, we knew we needed to challenge the conventions of boutique design," Liddy says.
Liddy says the prospect of creating something like Glasshouse excited the team when they saw the site.
"This exceptional site gave us astonishing design possibilities," Liddy suggested.
"For a team of creative thinkers, the extraordinary stretch of beachfront - backdropped by one of Australia’s most identifiable headlands, offered abundant design opportunities.
"We knew we wanted to capture and amplify the natural qualities of this extraordinary place and ayer those with a work of architecture that was as distinctive and as rare as the site itself.
"Through a deep understanding of the qualities of this site, the architecture creates an expression that honours a coastal landscape and reinforces a strong sense of belonging to its place," Liddy says.
"Glasshouse enables residents to experience the landscape with minimal visual disruption and maximum atmospheric impact while creating a work of enduring architectural value.
There are just three apartments in the boutique development. Only two remain, given the recent penthouse sale. They will each span a whole floor, one offering 300 sqm of indoor and outdoor living space and another over 400 sqm.
Each apartment has been designed to orientate the living spaces to the north, capturing the never-to-be-built-out views across the ocean. The entertaining starts from the kitchen, where there's the most impressive island bench, crafted out of natural materials.
Liddy says Glasshouse does not just offer luxury apartments, they are hyper-luxury residences.
"There’s nothing ‘routine’ about these spaces. For residents, it’s a sanctuary that amplifies the divine qualities of the location—drawing inside the sound of waves, salt-laden breezes and tempered, sub-tropical sunlight.
"Uniquely - the spatial experience reveals as a trilogy of realms which move from open toward the beachfront, invited at the centre of the plan and private where retreat spaces nestle into the foothills of Burleigh Heads.
"As the sequence of rooms move further from the shoreline, the interior transitions from dissolved and open, to spaces gradually becoming more sheltered and introverted. The defining experience of hyper-luxury plays out in moments of ambiguity – between inside and outside, garden and sculpture and the grounded and immersive experiences of rooms and spaces.
Liddy says the architecture embodies the qualities of the Burleigh Headland, its natural, permanent forms, revealed in the solid and planted elements of the façade, balconies, and rooftop.
