The Spanish word for coastal is costera – and it’s a name that carries real weight at Sydney’s beachside suburb of Bronte. Built by Micrah Projects, Costera Bronte is an award-winning townhouse development that sets a new benchmark for luxury coastal construction.

Micrah Projects, run by Co-directors/Builders Najib Rahme and Charlie Michael, is a Concord-based firm with more than 21 years’ experience in bespoke residential construction. ‘Building this home was not a straightforward walk in the park,’ Najib says. That may be an understatement. The site sits below street level and is in close proximity to a neighbouring property — two conditions that, combined with the sandy ground of the Bronte foreshore, created a formidable engineering challenge.

The sandy soils meant that as soon as the team broke ground, both the road above and the adjacent property were at risk of being undermined. The first priority was to construct a sacrificial retaining wall to prop the street while a permanent solution was engineered. Surveyors’ offset markers were placed along the footpath to monitor any movement in the temporary retaining walls or subsidence in the road.

‘We had zero margin for error,’ Najib says. ‘Every reading from those offset markers mattered. The safety of the street and the neighbour’s property depended on it.’

Once the site was secured, more than 80 reinforced contiguous piles were installed, capped with a beam that locked the entire basement together. Forty vertical agricultural drainage lines were then placed between the piers, with 300mm of blue metal laid over drainage channels carved directly into the rock base. Water drains seamlessly to a pump-out pit equipped with two pumps, a failure alarm, and a back-up battery to guard against power failure.

The structural system of Costera Bronte is equally considered. Dincel walling forms the basement level, followed by a suspended concrete slab with cavity brick on the ground floor. Above that, a cantilevered first-floor slab — one of the project’s most technically demanding elements — carries a brick veneer envelope. The facade is clad with 1150 aluminium battens, with strategically placed screens. ‘The battens and screens had to work on every level,’ Najib says. ‘Structurally, aesthetically and for the everyday experience of living there.’

During the build, Micrah Projects collaborated with architect firm Tesserarch and interior design studio MXM. Inside, the home blends resort-style amenities with sustainability credentials. Hydronic underfloor heating double-glazed thermally rated glass, solar panels, and well-insulated walls and ceilings keep energy consumption low. A geothermal heat pump system, along with all mechanical infrastructure, is concealed neatly within cabinetry.

The fit-out is relentless in its precision: micro-cement surfaces, a bespoke powder room with extraordinary render,a sleek Miele kitchen, cinema room, gym, sauna and an internal lift.

The HIA judges were definitive in their praise in awarding it 2026 HIA Australian Townhouse Development. ‘This project is superb on many levels,’ they said. ‘The amount of space achieved on such a small site with significant constraints is very clever. Attention to detail is at another level, as is the quality of finish.’

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Materials

• Basement: Contiguous pilling and Dincel concrete walls
• Ground floor slab & first-floor suspended slab: Solid concrete
• External facade: Aluminium extrusion battens from Knotwood Australia
• Driveway: Pendell tumbled baton in the Cobblestone range from Eco Outdoor
• Cupboards & master bedroom wardrobe: NavUrban pre-finished panel from New Age Veneers.