Heritage Extensions Melbourne

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

Extending a heritage home is the most particular kind of architecture Melbourne offers. The house has already won its argument, which 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.

FIXED FEES | 35+ YEARS | 400+ VICTORIAN PROJECTS | 59+ HERITAGE APPROVALS

THE PRACTICE'S DEEPEST LANE

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

35+

YEARS

400+

PROJECTS

59+

HERITAGE APPROVALS

PROOF

Won on the
hard sites

Two 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. At Lyon's Den, under one of Port Phillip's most restrictive overlays, a substantial extension plus a second dwelling was approved through the tribunal in six months.

Different answers, same discipline: the street keeps its story, the family gets its house.

THE FIVE DISCIPLINES

What a heritage extension
actually takes

A heritage extension is five jobs running at once. Each one has a point where projects fail, and each of these is a house we have taken through it.

Reading the house before drawing it

A heritage assessment establishes what must be preserved, and councils generally want it as part of the planning process. On a Victorian terrace in Fitzroy, that assessment identified original fireplaces and exterior features as essential, so the rear extension was designed around them from the first sketch. The approval went through without a fight because the design had already answered the question the assessment raised.

Matching without imitating

Materials, roof lines, window profiles and detailing have to converse with the original rather than mimic it. For a couple in Northcote extending an Edwardian home, we used recycled brick and timber with a roofline matched to the original, then introduced large sliding doors and solar panels where the street could not see them. The house reads as itself from the front and as a modern family home from the garden.

Making the old structure safe to build against

Period foundations were not built for what people want to add to them. On an early-1900s brick cottage in Carlton, our engineers found the original foundations could not carry a two-storey rear extension, so we designed a concealed steel frame that lets the new work stand independently. The original house carries nothing it was not built to carry.

Repairing rather than replacing

Specialist heritage trades can restore what ordinary trades would rip out. On a 1920s home in Richmond, builders repaired worn timber floors, replaced damaged external boards with identical profiles, and removed an unsafe later addition. The heritage features survived and the house became sound.

Holding the team together

Heritage projects run more consultants than standard ones. On a 1930s home in Hawthorn, coordination between architect, heritage consultant, engineer and builders kept the project on budget and every council heritage condition met. One design authority, one program, one point of accountability.

Love the house, need more of it?

Book a feasibility session and the extension your overlay will accept gets sketched in the first meeting.

BOOK A FEASIBILITY SESSION

PROCESS

The envelope, and the
ground you win inside it

Your property's grading and its overlay schedule set the envelope. The design case wins the ground inside it.

We test intentions against the planning scheme before drawing hard, use council heritage advice and pre-application channels early, and program the 60 statutory days with their pauses honestly, because information requests, heritage referrals and notice periods all stop the clock. Where an application has to be argued, our record includes extensions won at review, and every case is decided on its own merits.

COMFORT

Bringing a cold house
into this century

Heritage homes have high ceilings, timber floors and rooms that were never designed for how families live now. They are also, usually, cold.

Comfort is designed rather than retrofitted. Insulation introduced where the fabric allows it, double glazing in profiles that suit the era, efficient systems sized to the real building, and solar sited out of significant sightlines. Recycled brick and low-toxicity finishes do the environmental work without arguing with the original material palette. None of this shows from the street, and all of it shows in January and July.

OUTCOME

What owners
actually get

The family house that finally fits the family. The street unrobbed of its story. An approval won by design rather than endurance. And a building that costs less to live in than it did before you touched it.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Heritage extension questions,
answered honestly

Can I extend a heritage-listed home at all?

Almost always something, and often plenty. Your 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 and 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. Those are portfolio examples rather than a price guide: heritage detailing and the approval path shape each project's real number, which you get at feasibility.

How long does heritage-extension approval take?

Longer than the 60-day statutory clock suggests, because information requests, heritage referrals and notice periods pause it. Our delivered range runs in months rather than weeks, and we program it truthfully from the start.

Can a heritage home be made energy efficient?

Yes, within the fabric's limits. Insulation, era-appropriate double glazing, correctly sized systems and discreetly sited solar do most of the work, and all of it is cheaper designed in than added later.

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

Useful heritage
resources

Planning Victoria

Permits, setbacks and overlays.

Victorian Heritage Database

Check your property before you plan.

Heritage Council Victoria: At Home with Heritage

Living with and maintaining a protected home.

The house has waited a century, give it an hour

A full one-hour feasibility session with Barbara, in person: your home, its grading, its real capacity for more, and a straight recommendation. Barbara sketches while you talk through budget, logistics and planning timelines, and the drawn concept is yours to keep. 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.

BOOK 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.