Spanish-inspired home earns Barwon Heads builder top regional gong

Sandcastle Connewarre has won Doherty Building Group the 2026 Master Builders Victorian Residential Regional Builder of the Year. Picture: Madeleine Burke Photography A Spanish-inspired coastal home designed around a meditation room has won a major Victorian award for a Barwon Heads builder. Doherty Building Group took out the 2026 Master Builders Victoria Residential Regional Builder of the Year gong for the Sandcastle project in Connewarre’s 13th Beach estate. The luxury three-bedroom residence was also named the state’s best custom home in the $2m to $4m category. RELATED: Surf Coast hinterland’s $3m hemp farmhouse for sale Whirlwind campaign for Connewarre golf estate home Inside the luxury Torquay home built with 150 truckloads of concrete Dan Van Architects designed the house, which features a textured stucco facade, arched tunnel entry and curved tiled pool. Doherty Building Group managing director Tyson Doherty said creativity was required to pull off the client’s vision for their calming coastal sanctuary. It took three months alone for his team of carpenters, plasterers and painters to construct a ceiling funnel with an operable skylight that’s the centrepiece of the medi...