Mollymook Beach House

Mollymook Beach House is a private residence nestled behind the sand-dunes overlooking the pristine Pacific Ocean. Designed as a weekend retreat, this two-level residence combines minimal architecture, natural materials and lush tropical landscaping. 

The client is a young couple with children and this project was to represent their special place where they could bring friends for weekends of surf, relaxation and entertaining. The architecture gives the impression of a tropical resort, with 8 self-contained bedrooms and a number of separate living spaces intertwined within and above the natural landscaping. At night, the lighting would create a natural ambience, where darkness is allowed to take its place alongside intimate but functional illuminance.

The client provided a simple brief: “We don’t want fancy or decorative, but we see lighting as critical in creating the right mood. We want it to be stunning, but welcoming and simple, and we don’t mind a bit of natural darkness”.

Electrolight embraced this brief and set out to create a night-time experience which worked from within the architecture to fashion a magical transformation at night. 

The architecture is sober: the house seems to be a simple space covered by an apparently unsupported roof that hovers effortlessly over living spaces; most of the rooms are surrounded by raw concrete and timber, while the glazed atriums allow the landscape to become part of the interior. As a result it is difficult to distinguish indoor and outdoor spaces and for this reason the same luminaires have been used to give formal continuity. The Laser Blade High Contrast and Laser Wall Washer are used in the interiors in the minimal version, for total integration into wooden ceilings. In the exterior the Laser Blade InOut was used, cast into the concrete soffit. The nocturnal atmosphere is not homogenous, instead it presents a deliberate contrast between light and shadow.  This creates a deep sense of connection with nature, enhanced by the use of 2700 K colour temperature.