Revealed: How architects made this $48m beach complex with only two units

Architects at bureau^proberts have revealed a close-up look at their recently completed ‘Glasshouse’ project: a Burleigh Heads development with only two homes, which sold for $48 million combined.

Developer Spyre Group’s luxury building broke Gold Coast records at the time of sale, when each of its four-bedroom units sold for $24 million each. The project’s five levels are divided into three lower floors for the ‘beach house’ residence, and two upper floors and a rooftop retreat for the penthouse.

Each floor is bordered by curved and fluted glass, allowing the owner-occupiers a wide open view of the beach while refracting light to keep their privacy from the outside. Bureau^proberts partner and project design lead Dan Liddy said the award-winning development was a unique project on a smaller block, which allowed them to experiment with ideas on a more manageable scale. “We’re trying to create a modern version of the Queenslander,” he said, “with your veranda and your sunroom at the front.”

The block’s size meant the architects needed to engineer creative solutions for maximising available space: including pushing some of the land up by 15 metres, with part of the first floor remaining underground.

Mr Liddy said Spyre Group allowed bureau^proberts a great deal of creative freedom with the project, which led to its oasis-like design. “The terracing of the roof and the house was actually an outcome of planning requirements,” he said. “[We thought], ‘this is not a normal site, so let’s not do something normal.’”

“Its design responds to this amazing natural landscape, taking on the terrain of the Burleigh Headland … the effect is that in every room, there is a sense of being grounded by nature.” The project was completed in the second half of 2025, with its owner-occupiers having moved in shortly after the end of construction. Glasshouse is part of a series of luxury home collaborations between Spyre Group and bureau^proberts.

With their Coolangatta project Cala Dei recently completed, remaining projects under construction include Arc Residences in Toowong and Moray House in New Farm.