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Romantic Minimalism in the Great Barrier Reef

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Solis, by Renato D’Ettorre Architects, won the top award for houses – the Robin Dods Award for Residential Architecture.

The superb and dreamlike residence is sculpted from concrete, stone, air and glass.

You can imagine this romantic and mysterious architectural site as an abandoned ruin.

Hamilton Island on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef offered the architects a panoramic but steep site in a romantic tropical environment.

The architects were given free reign by “an appropriate budget and a desire for an oasis for an international business owner.”

Daring textural contrasts between glass and concrete are executed with originality and flair.

The architects believe in the power of architecture “in which we can take shelter, purify the mind, find peace and emerge enlightened and strengthened by the experience.”

The result is a confident and thoughtful highly-crafted modernist house with a slowly unfolding richness of space, place, material and detail.

The sense of ceremony for al fresco entertaining approaches the operatic.

Likewise, the stupendous proportions of the columns holding the pool create a sense of place in the romantic setting.

What an extraordinary experience.