Arden Vale presents
Architecture byMarlow Kerr Architects
Interiors byStudio Ilse
Landscape byFenwick Garden Studio
The Portsea HouseA coastal home in three pavilions, built 2022 to 2024
Arden Vale, luxury custom home builders. Some homes are built. Others are authored.
Arden Vale
Custom homes for Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula, since 2001.
The brief
A house is judged in daylight. A home is felt after dark.
Arden Vale builds architect-designed homes for people who have waited a long time to build one. We take on four homes at a time, never more, so a director is on every site every week and every client has a site manager who knows their house by heart.
We start with your architect and interior designer, price their drawings honestly, and then build them as drawn: kitchens, bathrooms, pools, automation and landscape included, delivered as one home rather than a set of trades.
- Established
- 2001
- Homes completed
- 96
- Homes on site at once
- 4 maximum
- Typical build
- 20–28 months
- Contract range
- $4M–$18M
- Delivered on programme
- 93%
The homes
Every home has its own opening credits. These are the people who made it.
Arden Vale presents
Architecture byHollis Reade
Interiors byAdair & Moss
Lighting byNightline Studio
The Toorak ResidenceA family home behind a garden wall, built 2021 to 2023
More from the reel
Drag or use the arrows. Hover a frame to turn its lights on.
In the dark
Materials are chosen by daylight and lived with by lamplight. Move your light across them.
Calacatta Viola marbleHoned, 40 mm. Kitchen island, Portsea
BlackbuttOiled, rift-sawn. Joinery and ceilings
BronzeHand-brushed. Pulls, frames, fireplace
Roman travertineFilled and honed. Terraces and baths
Move your cursor, or drag, to light the room
Five acts
How a home goes from first sketch to first night, in a typical 24-month build.
Act I
The brief
We meet you and your architect before a line is final. We walk the site, test the budget against the design and flag anything that will cost more to build than it is worth.
- Site walk and feasibility note within 14 days
- Cost plan tested against early drawings
- Buildability review with your architect
Act II
The ground
A fixed-price contract, priced line by line from the final drawings. Then excavation, retaining and footings, engineered for coastal sand and clay.
- Itemised fixed-price contract
- Geotechnical and engineering sign-off
- Slab and footings surveyed to 3 mm
Act III
The frame
Steel, concrete and timber structure under one site manager, who stays with your home until the keys. Every fortnight you receive a short film of the site.
- Fortnightly video reports
- Monthly site walk with a director
- Structural certification
Act IV
The envelope
Glazing, stone, roofing and cladding close the house in. Pool shell, services and automation cabling are installed and tested before any wall is lined.
- Pre-lining walkthrough, filmed
- Lighting mock-ups on site at night
- Waterproofing and services certificates
Act V
The keys
Joinery, stone and finishes by trades we have used for fifteen years. Then an evening handover: we turn every light on with you, room by room.
- Two-day handover and home manual
- Every warranty filed digitally
- Visits at 3, 6 and 12 months
Act I of VMonths 0–3
The craft
What we install ourselves, with the same trades on every home.
-
Kitchens & joinery
Stone, timber and steel, made to the millimetre.
- Joinery made by our Dandenong workshop partner
- Stone templated on site, edges to 60 mm
- Gaggenau, Miele, Sub-Zero and Wolf installed
- 12–16 weeks from shop drawings
-
Bathrooms & wellness
Rooms you close the door on and exhale.
- Stone slab walls, floor to ceiling
- Heated floors, steam rooms, saunas
- Freestanding stone baths, Vola and Astra Walker
- Waterproofing to AS 3740, certified
-
Pools & landscape
Water that glows long after the swim.
- Concrete pools to 25 m, infinity or wet edge
- Heat pump heating and automated covers
- Lighting designed with the landscape architect
- Barriers to AS 1926, certification included
-
Home automation
One touch for the whole evening.
- Lighting, climate, blinds, audio and security
- Control4 or Crestron, chosen with your architect
- Cabled and tested during framing
- 12 months of remote support included
Scene: Arrive
- Living lights
- 70%
- Dining pendant
- 40%
- Blinds
- Open
- Climate
- 21.5°C
- Security
- Disarmed
Try the evening
Every Arden Vale home is wired for scenes like these, set with you at handover. Choose one to see the living room change.
Collaborators
We don't design homes. We build them for the people who do.
Architecture
- Marlow Kerr Architects
- Hollis Reade
- Tamsin Ord Architecture
- Pell & Lowry
Interior design
- Studio Ilse
- Adair & Moss
- Wren Halloway Interiors
Landscape architecture
- Fenwick Garden Studio
- Otway Landscape
Lighting design
- Nightline Studio
Structural engineering
- Rigby Tan Engineers
Joinery
- Hartcourt Joinery
Stone
- Lithos Stone Studio
Pools
- Deepwater Pools
Automation
- Lumen Home Systems
Site managers
- Dan Ferreira
- Maya Kotzé
- Liam O'Hare
- Priya Nand
Directors
- Oliver Arden
- Claudia Vale
In their words
Build Your Dream Home
Your light, next.Every Arden Vale home begins with a private 90-minute consultation with a director, at your site or our Sorrento studio. Bring drawings, a sketch, or just the view.