Hall & Hart: Bringing the Mediterranean style home to the Australian market
When the Australian borders reopened in 2022, there was a mass exodus to enjoy a European summer in the sundrenched vistas of the Mediterranean. It proved our enduring and deep love for the stunning architecture and relaxed atmosphere of the region.
It’s a love that shines through in Hall & Hart’s new Mediterranean Residence, The Santorini - a truly beautiful design that evokes warmth by combining an elegantly rendered white façade with flowing internal spaces and soft colour palettes.
Mediterranean design perfectly complements Australia’s own sun-dappled climate and our love of outdoor living. This new home from Hall & Hart is inspired by the warm colourways and flowing edges of a traditional Spanish home, evoking the feeling of an endless summer and lazy afternoons with wine and tapas.
The stunning façade has a relaxed grandeur, while form follows function inside. Elegant interior spaces provide a sense of privacy and tranquillity, an ideal foundation for easy family living.
What defines Mediterranean design?
Mediterranean architecture originates from the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea, including Spain, Greece, Italy and Morocco. It is characterised by simple lines and a minimalist, romantic aesthetic that harnesses the warmth of natural tones. The architecture creates privacy and a sense of tranquillity, while still facilitating intimate familial living.
The elegant simplicity of Hall & Hart’s Santorini design keeps every space feeling open, airy and fresh. Visual interest is added through beautiful design accents such as mosaic tile patterns.
It is also defined by fluidity and indoor/outdoor spaces that bring a holiday feeling into everyday life. This home has an inherent lightness, for that European holiday feel. The outdoor courtyard is reminiscent of an Italian village square, with paved spaces lit carefully for ambience and entertaining, while the warm colour palette complements Spanish-style arches which give the residence enormous charm.
Nick Rawson, Design and Pre-Construction Director at Hall & Hart says that Mediterranean homes are an emerging trend in the Australian market.
“Australians have for a long time taken inspiration from overseas as an aspirational way of living, most predominantly through Hampton, Scandinavian and French designs.”
“In addition to these previous trends, the Mediterranean style home is another ode to the European influence on Australian architecture, which aims to bring a feeling of an eternal holiday to one’s very own home.”
In-house experts in custom, luxury design
Over the years, our design and construction expertise has enabled us to create a rare design process that’s managed entirely in-house.
Compliance, architecture, interior design, and construction are all seamlessly interwoven at Hall & Hart, to produce a comprehensive design that blends design and lifestyle aspirations with compliance and financial constraints. Possessing intimate familiarity with Sydney terrain and planning requirements, we have a unique local edge.
Hall & Hart is also differentiated by the sheer level of commitment that each member of our team brings to creating our portfolio of homes. Every single person involved in bringing the Santorini Residence to life gave their all – from our architects to interior designers and project managers.
As with all Hall & Hart designs, flexibility is baked into this design, it's built-in adaptability enables the spaces to change to meet the changing demands of the family who choose to make this their home.
Our team also worked to modify the Santorini aesthetic so that it translates effortlessly from the Amalfi Coast to Australian shores.
Nick Rawson says that Mediterranean-style homes can be very suited to coastal living – influenced by places such as Ibiza, Santorini and Amalfi. However, they can also be adapted to more inland natural features by taking inspiration from Mediterranean wine regions, such as Basque country.
“Like these Mediterranean regions, Sydney also presents picturesque coastal and inland scenery and much of these designs are about tying the natural landscape elements into the home design for indoor/outdoor home lifestyles – the lifestyles of these overseas regions are pretty similar to how families live in Sydney, so it was very adaptable,” says Nick.
“This style of home with a rendered white façade is very much suited to all along the east coast of Sydney – from Palm Beach to the Shire and any internal coastal/bay areas. The more earthy and traditional façade is very suitable to more parkland areas such as St Ives, Pymble and Turramurra (much of the Ku-Ring-Gai and Hornsby areas) and is very much suited to the large and wide blocks of these suburbs.”
A flowing and spacious floor plan for entertaining
The Santorini Residence has a light and airy feel, with flowing spaces that are suited to both airy coastal living and earthy inland areas.
A modest 16.5m wide design that’s suited to 18m block widths, the design's built-in adaptability enables the spaces to change to meet the changing demands of the family who choose to make this their home.
The ground floor seamlessly interweaves three practical zones. A guest area for long stays, a home office and a spacious area for entertaining that brings the outside in, with an internal courtyard that provides an abundance of natural light.
The first floor boasts three clear areas for younger or older children, each with its own bathrooms and ensuites. Privacy meets connection, with the kids’ zones linked to the spacious main bedroom by a hallway bridge that overlooks the ground floor courtyard and foyer atrium.
Cross the bridge into your very own parents' sanctuary; a main bedroom with a private balcony, oversized walk-in-robe, and a resort-style ensuite which gives the space a sense of calm and tranquillity.
The plan evokes the feeling of being on eternal holiday, with a celebration of light and airflow and organic spaces where functional outdoor meet beautiful interiors for a relaxed way of living.
Design & Construct with Hall & Hart
It’s the little things that make a difference when you choose to build with Hall & Hart.
Years of experience understanding how Australians live has taught us to think beyond functional elements of planning and construction; to factor in things you can’t necessarily see but you can always feel; the things that make the most difference to building – and living in – your brand new home.
It’s our full-service design team of architects, landscape architects, lighting specialists and interior designers who optimise your home unique to your household and lifestyle. It’s our attention to detail, the ‘nice to haves’ that is the Hall & Hart difference, and we welcome you to discover it for yourself.
