Mondrian Gold Coast is Australia’s first luxury lifestyle hotel from the globally renowned Mondrian brand, located at the iconic surf destination of Burleigh Beach in the state of Queensland.

Working with clients Vitale Property Group and Mondrian Gold Coast, Alexander &CO. (A&CO.) developed the creative brief and brand pillars for the hotel entry and its two podium venues: LiTO, the ground-floor, all-day Italian restaurant and lobby bar, and Haven, the third-floor seafood restaurant and Pool Club.

Hedging the tree-lined Esplanade, and across from the beach, the project unfolds over 24 floors of studios, suites, private Beach and Sky Houses, and includes a bio-wellness spa and event spaces, all designed by architects Fraser & Partners and interior designers Studio Carter.

Burleigh is a covetable global destination; vibrant, abundant in fresh food, sunshine, and sublime ocean water. A&CO.’s hospitality story lies in amplifying the beautiful natural locale, while embedding an aspirational nostalgia of Burleigh that never quite existed.

The two venues are elevated beachside and feel as if they have been carved into rock by Burleigh’s wind and ocean, pumice-like, patined. Euro-inspired vignettes of soft render, handmade tiles, and curved concrete profiles are layered by custom timber, brass, and leather furniture in tones of burgundies, sage green, rust, tan, and brown.

The vision 

At the heart of the venues’ narrative is contrast - a client story that remixes the entrepreneurial local knowledge of Vitale Property Group, combined with the international wanderlust of the Mondrian brand and fresh eclecticism of hospitality providers Ennismore (Mondrian’s parent company).

A&CO.’s challenge lay in differentiating this patch of the beach, which sits at the cultural border between the ritzy sands of the Gold Coast and the bohemian, grassroots, laid-back energy of Byron Bay. It was important for the A&CO. team that the venues embodied the soul of Burleigh; sunshine, surfing, and a covetable lifestyle-focus, while also being representative of Burleigh as an aspirational, international tourist destination.

“The venue feels reminiscent of its European food story, and also its historic role as an indigenous meeting place," says A&CO. Principal, Jeremy Bull. "It's like some ancient ruin, monolithic, worn back, and sun bleached. The firm's own passion for modernity introduced a contemporary, mid-century angle, whilst Jorn Utzon’s own house, Can Lis, Mallorca, added some curious reference points to these Mediterranean-inspired spaces. The narrative we hoped to achieve would be like walking through an ancient oceanside salon, full of artefacts of something long forgotten.”

The spaces 

LiTO 

Set within a shell-like context of soaring architecture, dendriform columns, bone-colour concrete forms, Venetian plaster, and aged terrazzo flooring, LiTO is purposefully focused on the act of dining, featuring a long central bar, a theatrical open kitchen, and a cafe corner fronting the esplanade.

The ground floor restaurant and lobby bar establish a sense of arrival to the hotel, welcoming guests to the hotel reception desk - hand-made in walnut by Hugh McCarthy, with a custom embossed brick artwork by Natural Brick Company proclaiming you to be “any way you want”.

The venue presented the challenge of managing multiple patron flows. It needed to cater to three different types of trades (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), while balancing the expectations of community patrons wanting a takeaway coffee and acting as the entry point for arriving guests expecting a hotel reception. There was also the added complexity of operational pathways, with A&CO. coordinating and planning back-of-house and front-of-house services.

The design response sought to spatially cater to patron flows and simultaneously craft intimate dining experiences in a high-volume space. A&CO. introduced dendriform columns to anchor the 5m ceiling and overlay a mid-century language within the venue. The use of a Venetian plaster arbour over the open kitchen allowed A&CO. to play with shape and form, whilst 20th-century inspired furniture grounded the lofty architecture to create a dynamic waterside salon.

Given the beachside location, finishes had to withstand coastal conditions, sandy feet, and the wet swimmers of patrons, without compromising the deeply handmade, textural, and rich materiality.

A combination of custom furniture in rich walnut, deep reds, rust, and sage holds its place in the dining room. Using dark tones to hold directional lighting at night allowed A&CO. to address the difficult challenge of lighting a F&B space that shifts mood from morning to evening, and to avoid a muted ambience that pale venues evoke during dinner trade.

Similarly, the ceiling and mid-tone floor can throw darker tones when illuminated at night. The terrazzo tiles that flood the floor are also used to create zones and connect spaces from the street terrace to the lift lobby.

The lighting is all specified warm-to-dim with pendants and wall lights used in volume to move a curious nocturnal eye around under night lighting conditions.

A curved corner, bronze-edged mirror above the coffee bar, and a solid walnut-framed triptych mirror over the bar, reflect back the Esplanade’s iconic tall pine trees.

Of note is the 10m-long lobby bar and front, which features a “concrete curtain”, a suite of pre-cast concrete curved units which are organised to exclude any pattern repeats. In a solid walnut top with lambs tongue and ogee edge details and aged zinc inlay, the piece adds a gentleness to what could be an architecturally monolithic envelope.

Located on the northern corner of the venue, a cafe designed for venue dispense, and featuring a marshmallow coloured concrete island, is set up for esplanade grab and go, allowing ease of access for esplanade foot traffic.

*Detail design notes: The bespoke bricks of the ‘Any Way You Want’ brick wall feature behind reception desk were developed in collaboration with Natural Brick Company (NBC). The bricks incorporate white Wombeyan marble rubble and dust reclaimed from sculptor Alex Seton. NBC partnered with UTS’s robotics lab to carve brick positives, allowing for reuse in rubber mould creation. The advanced robotics process ensures exceptional detail, enhancing the bricks’ architectural precision and fidelity. 

Haven 

Accessed by the lift lobby or ground-floor external scissor back stair, Haven restaurant, bar, and Pool Club embodies a coastal daydream, as if the seaside has been lifted above the Esplanade and nestled on the third floor.

With views through Burleigh’s statuesque pine trees to sun-kissed sands and sparkling waters, Haven leans into a Euro-inspired and uncomplicated beachside ambience. The venue captures the dynamic energy of Burleigh, with both a cocktail bar and 150pax restaurant, as well as a Pool Club.

The interior restaurant venue is simple and monolithic, reminiscent of a coastal ruin or wind-swept artifact. A large, pre-cast concrete bar with huge mirrors reflect back the green marble-lined pool deck, whilst the restaurant, with its seafood ledge, feature pizza oven, and open kitchen, holds the energy of the rearmost corner of the floor plate, clad in timber work and patterned tiles.

The flooring is a combination of stone Utzon-inspired patterns, large expanses of concrete infill, oversized toothy scarpa tiles, and grout, each selected to designate the various zones within the venue.

Lighting was designed with Shaun Dudley of Transmitt, a long-term collaborator of A&CO., in a variety of custom modernist shapes fashioned in brass, cream, and green, adding a layer of contemporary animation to the stone and concrete foundations.

Custom solid timber furniture in various shapes, with accents of tan, green, burgundy, and brown leather, speckle the open dining hall. Long timber dining tables with green-tiled legs and inlay detail cater to banquet dining.

The Pool Club features a 25m swimming pool surrounded by ample umbrella-lined sunbeds, two raised hot tubs, and an outdoor deck bar servicing poolside customers and events. Five external rentable cabanas, with refrigeration and banquettes that transform into daybeds, provide exclusivity, privacy, and intimacy for those seeking a little more poolside luxury.

Looking for a tailored story?

Alexander &CO. would love to collaborate on a tailored story, so please don't hesitate to contact Marketing Director Tess Glasson at tess@alexanderand.co for further information, quotes from Alexander &CO.'s design team, or more specific design details.