Heritage Extensions Melbourne

Extensions won on Melbourne's strictest heritage sites, 59+ approvals and counting.

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

Extending a heritage home is the most particular kind of architecture Melbourne offers. The house has already won its argument, that is why it is protected, so the extension's job is to add a generation of life without contradicting a century of character. Done well, the join is the design: old fabric holding the street, new volume carrying light and family life behind it.

Image —
shadow-line heritage
extension

The Deepest Lane

This is the practice's deepest lane. BY Projects Architecture holds 59+ heritage approvals across 35+ years, including extensions won on some of Melbourne's most restrictive overlay sites, and registered architect Barbara Yerondais FRAIA draws every heritage extension herself, starting with the conversation and a pencil.

35+

Years

400+

Projects

59+

Heritage Approvals

Era by Era

Five streets,
five playbooks

Fitzroy Victorian terrace

Cellular boom-era plans opened to light and garden behind a facade and parapet the street never sees disturbed.

Northcote Edwardian

Generous bones, deep verandahs and red-brick fronts kept intact while the rear wing is rebuilt around modern family life.

Carlton 1900s cottage

Modest single-fronted fabric extended within tight setbacks, the new work stepping down and back so the cottage stays the story.

Richmond 1920s

Interwar bungalow forms given rear volume and northern light without breaking the roofline rhythm the streetscape depends on.

Hawthorn 1930s

Clinker-brick and tile-roofed homes extended in a language that respects their craftsmanship while doubling how they live.

Image —
recycled brick and timber,
new meets old

Materials

Matched fabric,
modern structure

The material craft carries the approvals: recycled brick and timber matched to the original fabric where the old and new must read as kin, steel framing carrying new loads where century-old foundations need relief, and sustainability integrated through the detailing so the extended home performs as well as it presents.

[Design note: this section reweaves the live page's suburb-era and materials content — final copy trims spun connectives only, substance retained.]

Image —
Port Melbourne cottage,
hidden upper storey

Proof

Won on the
hard sites

Two register projects set the standard this page sells. On a significant Victorian workers cottage in Port Melbourne, our shadow-line approach added a recessive upper storey invisible from the street, doubling the home's capacity inside a Heritage Overlay. And at Lyon's Den, under one of Port Phillip's most restrictive overlays, a substantial extension was approved, through VCAT, in six months. Different answers, same discipline: the street keeps its story, the family gets its house.

Approvals

The envelope,
and the ground inside it

Your property's grading and overlay schedule set the envelope; the design case wins the ground inside it. We test intentions against the scheme before drawing hard, use council heritage advice and pre-application channels early, and program the 60-statutory-day clock with its pauses honestly. Where an application must fight, our record includes extensions won at review, and every case is its own.

Image —
Lyon's Den extension,
Port Phillip overlay

Common Questions

Heritage-extension questions,
answered honestly

Can I extend a heritage-listed home at all?

Almost always something, often plenty: grading and overlay schedule set the envelope, and design quality wins the space inside it. Our 59+ approvals include extensions on highly restrictive sites.

Will the extension have to imitate the old house?

Usually the opposite: most heritage policy prefers candid new work that defers to the old rather than costume that competes with it. The shadow-line approach, bold behind, invisible in front, is one worked answer.

What does a heritage extension cost?

Across BY Projects' delivered work, substantial extensions have started around $1 million, portfolio examples rather than a price guide, with heritage detailing and approvals shaping each project's real number at feasibility.

How long does heritage-extension approval take?

Longer than the 60-day statutory clock suggests: information requests, heritage referrals and notice periods pause it. Our delivered range runs months, not weeks, and we program truthfully from the start.

Local Knowledge

Useful
resources

Victorian Heritage Database

Grading first, dreaming second.

Heritage Council Victoria: At Home with Heritage

Guidance for owners of protected homes.

Planning Victoria

Schemes, overlays and permit processes.

Start the Conversation

The house has waited a century;
give it an hour

What owners get from all this: the family house that finally fits the family, the street unrobbed of its story, and an approval won by design rather than endurance.

A feasibility session with Barbara reads your home, its grading and its capacity for more, and you keep the drawn concept. No obligation, fixed fees from there.

The heritage approval months are fixed; whether they start this quarter or next is the only variable you own.

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