Architects for Regional Victoria

Regional Victoria tests a Melbourne practice honestly: distance, local builders, different councils, and clients who can spot a city firm going through the motions. Our answer is two delivered projects. Wangaratta came first: thirteen dwellings on a former aged-care site, approval in five months in 2020, built with Joss Construction for Beyond Housing. Greater Shepparton followed, twenty units of community housing approved in seven months in 2021, built with Sessions Builders for Beyond Housing and the White Foundation. Both sat in the $2.5m–5.2m range and both ran on regional terms with regional partners.

CITY AND COUNTRY BOTH

Behind those numbers stands a 35+-year practice, 400+ projects across the state, led by registered architect Barbara Yerondais FRAIA, city and country both.

35+

YEARS

400+

PROJECTS

59+

HERITAGE APPROVALS

THE NETWORK

Three regional cities,
three real pages

Regional work deserves local depth, not a service-area list, so the practice keeps dedicated pages for its regional centres. Each carries the council specifics this page cannot hold for the whole state.

Bendigo

Where our page covers the council's heritage machinery and growth rules in detail.

Ballarat

Built around the renovate-extend-rebuild decision.

Geelong

From heritage gradings to the Bellarine's coastal work.

THE TERRITORY

Regional property,
plainly

Regional Victoria's stock runs wider than any city page can: goldfields-era cottages and villas in the historic centres, farmhouse and township weatherboards, postwar family homes, and contemporary builds on blocks the suburbs stopped offering decades ago. The common threads are land, honest fabric and councils that each work their own way, which is why the practice keeps city-specific pages for its regional centres and answers everything else with feasibility rather than assumption.

PROJECT MIX

What regional Victoria
brings us

Homes

Renovations, extensions and new builds on the generous blocks regional cities still offer.

Heritage work

In the goldfields cities and country towns, where protected stock is the town's identity.

Community and social housing

The delivered lane above, for providers who need regional projects run properly.

Adaptive reuse

Churches, halls and civic buildings given second lives, a practice specialty.

Feasibility before commitment

By video first if the distance argues for it.

HOW IT WORKS

Distance,
handled honestly

The first conversation is a full one-hour feasibility session by video: your property, its council's rules, the honest scope. Site visits happen when they matter, documentation and approvals run remotely as they now can, and construction pairs our design authority with builders who know your patch, the way Shepparton ran with Sessions and Wangaratta with Joss. Fees are fixed from the start, and the statutory 60-day permit clock, with its pauses, gets programmed at its true regional pace.

Distance is not the obstacle.

By video, from wherever in Victoria you are.

BOOK A FEASIBILITY SESSION

OUTCOMES

What regional
clients get

A design practice that arrives prepared rather than surprised. Approvals run at realistic clocks with local consultants where they help. Buildings that fit their towns instead of importing Melbourne's. And a delivered regional record, unit counts, approval times, named partners, that most city firms cannot table; the design record itself sits publicly at awards and publications.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Regional questions,
answered honestly

Do you really take on projects outside Melbourne?

The record answers it: community housing delivered in Greater Shepparton (approval in seven months) and Wangaratta (five months), plus dedicated practice pages for Bendigo, Ballarat and Geelong. Regional is a lane, not an exception.

How does working with a Melbourne architect from the country actually run?

Feasibility by video, site visits when they matter, remote documentation, and construction with builders who know your area, the model both regional deliveries used. Distance shapes logistics, not quality.

Do you work with housing providers and community organisations?

Yes: both delivered regional projects were community housing, run with Beyond Housing, in the $2.5m–5.2m range. Providers get the same feasibility-first process homeowners do, at provider scale.

What does an architect-designed renovation or extension cost?

Across BY Projects' delivered work, renovation budgets have ranged from approximately $250,000–$570,000, and substantial extensions have started around $1 million. These are portfolio examples rather than statewide price guides; scope and site drive the real number, and the feasibility session gives you one for your project.

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

Useful statewide
resources

Planning Victoria

Every Victorian planning scheme, overlay and pathway.

Victorian Heritage Database

Check whether a property is heritage listed.

START THE CONVERSATION

Start from your
kitchen table

The feasibility session runs by video anywhere in the state: your property, your council, your options, sketched and priced honestly. Yours to keep, no obligation.

Schedule a Feasibility Session

Start the Conversation

Every project begins with a deep inquiry into site, heritage, and vision. Let’s discuss the strategic potential of your next work.

SCHEDULE A FEASIBILITY SESSION →

A PRELIMINARY CONSULTATION TO EVALUATE HERITAGE CONSTRAINTS, SITE POTENTIAL, AND PROJECT FEASIBILITY.