Architect-Designed Homes Melbourne

One house, designed for your block and your life, with the knock-down-rebuild question answered honestly first.

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Fixed Fees 35+ Years 59+ Heritage Approvals Registered Architect (FRAIA)

A new home is the purest architectural brief and the easiest one to waste. Volume builders sell floor plans by the square metre; an architect designs the one house that fits your block's sun, slope and street, your household's actual life, and a budget agreed before the drawing starts. The difference shows up every morning the light lands where it should, and every bill the thermal design keeps small.

Image —
The Zeus,
Chelsea Heights
New Homes, Grounded in Science

BY Projects Architecture designs new homes across Melbourne and Victoria: replacement homes on established streets, first homes on new blocks, and the knock-down-rebuild decisions in between. Registered architect Barbara Yerondais FRAIA leads the work, backed by a 35+-year, 400+-project Victorian record and Barbara's own building-science grounding, around a decade lecturing the subject at RMIT and the University of Melbourne.

35+
Years
400+
Projects
59+
Heritage Approvals
Image —
knock-down-rebuild study,
both futures drawn
Knock Down & Rebuild

Knock down and rebuild,
decided honestly

The knock-down-rebuild question deserves arithmetic, not sentiment: what the existing house would cost to fix, what the block could carry new, and which path serves the next twenty years. We run that comparison at feasibility with drawings on both sides, and we have no stake in the bigger answer, the fee is fixed either way. Where the house deserves saving, we say so; our renovation lane is the other half of the practice. Where the block deserves better, the new home starts from the site: orientation first, then plan, then form.

Proof

New homes on
the record

The Zeus in Chelsea Heights, 2021: a detached home in curved metal with a professional workspace built in, a house shaped by its owners' working life rather than a catalogue. Military Road, Avondale Heights, 2023: a two-storey home that captures its outlook while managing privacy on both sides. And currently on the boards and on site: a knock-down-rebuild in Carrum and a new residence in Mont Albert North, both in delivery as this page is written.

Image —
Military Road,
Avondale Heights
Torn between fixing the old house and starting again?

Book a feasibility session; both futures get drawn, then compared side by side.

Book a Feasibility Session
How We Design

How the design
actually happens

Feasibility reads the block: sun, slope, neighbours, overlays, services. Concept design finds the house, and Barbara sketches it with you in the room, not after you leave. Design development makes it buildable and priceable; documentation makes it approvable and tenderable; and the building-science thread, orientation, thermal mass, ventilation, glazing, runs through every stage because comfort is designed, never retrofitted. Fees are fixed from engagement, and the statutory clocks are programmed truthfully.

Image —
Barbara sketching live,
concept in the room
Image —
new home, light placed
where the life happens
Outcomes

What a designed
home delivers

A house that fits its block like it grew there. Rooms placed where your life happens and light follows it. Running costs engineered down before the slab is poured. And a build process where the architect who drew it stays accountable through construction.

Common Questions

New-home questions,
answered honestly

Should we renovate or knock down and rebuild?

Run both futures as drawings and numbers, then choose: that is the feasibility session's job, and our fixed fee means the recommendation carries no incentive either way. Structure, overlays and the decades ahead usually decide it.

What does an architect-designed home cost compared to a volume build?

Usually more up front, said plainly: design fees buy a house fitted to its site rather than a repeated plan, with thermal performance engineered before construction. Whether that trade is worth it depends on your block and your decades, which is the feasibility conversation. Fees are fixed at engagement, and your specific project gets priced there.

Can you design around a difficult block?

Difficult blocks are where architecture out-earns its fee: slopes, narrow frontages, overlays and odd orientations respond to design, not to catalogues. Our record includes exactly these sites.

How long does a new home take from first meeting to keys?

Design and approvals typically run months, construction longer, and every truthful program depends on the council pathway and the builder's book. We map your realistic timeline at feasibility and keep it updated.

Local Knowledge

Useful
resources

Planning Victoria

Single-dwelling pathways, incl. the deemed-to-comply route for smaller lots.

Victorian Heritage Database

Check before you demolish.

Renovate-vs-rebuild article

The straight comparison.

Start the Conversation

Start with the block,
not the brochure

A full one-hour feasibility session with Barbara: your land, its possibilities, and the first true sketch of the home it could hold. Yours to keep, no obligation.

New homes run on long clocks: design, approval, tender, build. The families in theirs next year started before they felt ready.

A full one-hour feasibility session, in person, where Barbara sketches your design live while you work through logistics, budget and planning timelines together, so all parties leave aligned; the drawn concept is yours to keep.
Schedule a Feasibility Session