What began as plans for a new bathhouse inside a Surry Hills warehouse is now taking physical shape, with Sense of Self revealing more of the architecture, materials and spaces behind its first Sydney venue ahead of its expected September opening.
From Warehouse to Bathhouse
The new Sense of Self is being created at 529–531 South Dowling Street, transforming a former antiques warehouse into a two-level bathhouse spanning more than 1,000 square metres.
The Surry Hills venue will be the Melbourne-founded wellness brand’s first Sydney location and is expected to open in September 2026.
Rather than concealing the building’s industrial character, architects Ritz & Ghougassian have incorporated materials including brick, stone and chrome into a deliberately restrained interior.
Recent footage from the project shows the building moving well beyond the render stage, with rooms, passageways and bathing spaces increasingly taking their final form.
For founder Freya Berwick and architect Jean-Paul Ghougassian, the details are central to what the finished space is intended to achieve.
“The core of what we think and talk about is just really, really caring about something,” Berwick says in the latest instalment of the project’s Building a Bathhouse series. “And if you really care, you make every decision count.”
Those decisions extend from the materials beneath visitors’ feet to the way light falls across the brickwork and how people move between spaces.
Inside the New Surry Hills Bathhouse
The scale of the Surry Hills conversion allows Sense of Self to bring several different bathing and relaxation experiences together.
Across the two levels, the plans bring together mineral bathing, a Hammam, sauna and cold-water experiences, alongside massage rooms and areas set aside for sensory rest and relaxation.
The venue will also contain what Sense of Self says will be the largest sauna in the Southern Hemisphere.
Another feature making the journey north from the brand’s Collingwood bathhouse is its Scrub Station, where guests choose exfoliating products for a self-guided scrub and steam ritual in the Hammam.
But the emerging Surry Hills venue is being designed around more than the individual facilities.
Designing for the Way a Space Feels
The latest construction update offers a closer look at an aspect of the project that is harder to capture on a list of amenities: how architecture can affect the experience of being there.
Berwick and Ghougassian discuss details including texture, light and the transition between different areas of the building.
The intention is to create places not only for bathing, but also for resting, listening and spending time with oneself.
That thinking is consistent with the philosophy Sense of Self has developed since opening its Collingwood bathhouse in Melbourne in 2020.
“Since opening Collingwood in 2020, we’ve always stayed close to what truly matters: belonging, care and a very human way of holding space,” Berwick has said of the Sydney expansion.
She described the Surry Hills project as a continuation of that approach, but within a space shaped specifically for Sydney.
Surry Hills Opening Draws Closer
The project arrives amid a broader expansion of bathhouses, saunas and communal wellness spaces across Sydney, but its warehouse setting gives the Surry Hills venue a particularly strong connection to its surroundings.
Instead of starting with a purpose-built wellness facility, the project has adapted an existing industrial building and used its scale, brickwork and enclosed spaces as part of the design.
Sense of Self has not yet announced an exact opening date, saying an announcement is coming soon.
For now, the latest look inside shows a project entering its final stages — and provides a clearer picture of how an old Surry Hills warehouse is being transformed into one of Sydney’s largest new bathing spaces.
Published Date 01-August-2026
