Answering: Heritage consultant vs heritage architect: who do you actually need for a Melbourne heritage project?
Estimated reading time: 8 min read
If your council or planner has told you to engage a heritage consultant, you usually need one, but a consultant alone rarely gets your project designed and built. A heritage consultant assesses a place’s cultural significance and prepares the heritage impact statement councils ask for; a heritage architect is a registered architect (ARBV) who takes that heritage understanding and turns it into a buildable design, prepares the documentation, lodges and negotiates the planning permit, and administers construction on site. A consultant can tell you what you can’t do. You still need someone to design what you can. On most substantial heritage homes the two work together, and across 59 heritage approvals our practice has done exactly that, repeatedly.
It is an easy place to get stuck. You have a protected building, a council letter naming a “heritage advisor” or “heritage consultant”, and a real fear underneath: that one wrong move could devalue a place you love, or that months of work end in a refusal. When the project is a $1 million to $2 million home, the cost of guessing which professional does what is not abstract.
The honest answer is that these are two different jobs, both valuable, and the confusion usually comes from a single council request being read as the whole brief. Knowing where each role starts and stops, and where they overlap, is what keeps your project moving instead of stalling between two desks. Here is how they actually fit together.
Key Insights
- A heritage consultant assesses significance and prepares heritage impact statements; a heritage architect designs the works and runs the permit and construction.
- “Heritage architect” means a registered architect (ARBV) who brings the heritage response into the design, not a separate qualification.
- When a council asks for a heritage impact statement, it is asking for a consultant’s input, not for a design or a lodged application.
- Most substantial heritage projects need both, working together, so the heritage argument and the design are one coherent case.
| Question | Heritage Consultant / Advisor | Heritage Architect (Registered, ARBV) |
|---|---|---|
| What they do | Assess a place’s cultural significance and advise on heritage impact | Design the works and carry the project through permit and construction |
| Registration | No statutory register; a suitably qualified heritage specialist | Registered architect with the Architects Registration Board of Victoria (ARBV) |
| Typical deliverables | Significance assessment, heritage impact statement, conservation advice | Concept and developed design, planning and construction documentation |
| Who designs the works | Advises on impact; does not design the building | Designs the building, with the heritage response built into the design |
| Who lodges and negotiates the permit | May supply the heritage statement that supports the application | Prepares, lodges and negotiates the planning application with council |
| Who runs construction | Not their role | Prepares contract documents and can administer construction on site |
| When you need them | When council asks for a heritage impact statement, or for complex significance questions | When you need the project designed, permitted and delivered |
Keep reading for full details below.
Table of Contents
- What a Heritage Consultant Actually Does
- What a Heritage Architect Adds: Design, Permit, Delivery
- When You Need Both, and How They Work Together
- How to Decide Who to Call First
What a Heritage Consultant Actually Does
A heritage consultant, sometimes called a heritage advisor, is a specialist in the cultural significance of places, and their work is genuinely valuable. They are usually who a council has in mind when it asks for heritage input.
Their core deliverable on a private project is the heritage impact statement. For complex or large-scale proposals, a heritage impact statement is commonly required, and many councils expect it to be prepared by a suitably qualified heritage consultant as part of a Heritage Overlay application. Heritage Victoria publishes guidelines for what such a statement should contain. In practice the consultant’s job is to:
- Assess why a place matters, its cultural heritage significance and contributory elements.
- Set out how a proposal affects that significance, the heritage impact.
- Offer conservation advice on fabric, materials and reversibility.
What a heritage consultant generally does not do is design your building, prepare the architectural and construction drawings, lodge and argue the planning permit, or run the build. Their work describes and protects the heritage value; it is an input to the application, not the application itself. That distinction is the whole point of this article, and it is the one most owners are never told.
What a Heritage Architect Adds: Design, Permit, Delivery
A “heritage architect” is not a separate licence. It is a registered architect who specialises in heritage work, and the word registered matters in Victoria.
Only a person registered by the Architects Registration Board of Victoria (ARBV) under the Architects Act may use the title “architect” in this state. Registration carries continuing professional development and professional indemnity insurance obligations, so the title is a verifiable standard, not a description anyone can adopt. A registered architect working on a heritage home does the full arc of the project:
- Designs the works, bringing the heritage response into the design rather than treating it as a constraint bolted on afterwards.
- Prepares the planning and construction documentation the council and your building surveyor need.
- Lodges the planning permit application and negotiates it with council, including any heritage referral.
- Can administer construction, so the home that gets built is the home that was approved.
The design point is the one owners feel most. A heritage consultant can tell you a principal elevation is protected and a rear addition should read as subordinate. A heritage architect has to resolve that into a real plan: where the new roof line sits, how the addition meets the original wall, how light and how you actually live are reconciled with what the overlay protects. That is design judgment, and it is what turns a heritage constraint into a home built for living, not just a compliant box.
Across 35-plus years and 59 heritage approvals, our work has been to carry that full cycle, design, permit and delivery, so the heritage argument and the buildable design are one case, not two professionals talking past each other.
When You Need Both, and How They Work Together
On many substantial heritage homes, the right answer is not consultant or architect. It is both, working together from the start.
The reason is simple: the heritage impact statement and the design have to tell the same story. A consultant’s statement that argues for a subordinate, reversible addition is only persuasive if the architect’s drawings actually deliver one. When the two are commissioned separately and late, they can contradict each other, and a council heritage advisor will notice. When they are coordinated, the application reads as a single, coherent case.
When you need both, working together
- The council has asked for a heritage impact statement. The consultant prepares it; the architect designs to it, so the statement and the drawings agree.
- The building is individually significant or on a complex site. The significance questions are involved enough to warrant a specialist, and the design needs to answer them precisely.
- The proposal is substantial, the kind of $1 million to $2 million renovation where a refusal is expensive. A coordinated heritage and design case is the better insurance.
- The project will go to construction, where only the architect carries the documentation and contract administration through to a finished home.
In our experience, the cleanest projects are the ones where the heritage specialist and the architect are reading the same brief early. The architect often coordinates the consultant’s input, weaving the significance assessment into the design and the permit strategy, so you are not managing two separate professionals who have never spoken.
How to Decide Who to Call First
If a council letter or planner has named a heritage consultant, the instinct is to engage one and assume the project is now handled. It is worth pausing on what you are actually being asked for.
A request for a heritage impact statement is a request for one document that supports a planning application. It is not, by itself, the design, the lodged permit, or the build. So the practical question is what your project needs as a whole:
- If you only need a place assessed, or a standalone significance opinion, a heritage consultant is the right and complete answer.
- If you intend to alter, extend or build, you need a registered architect to design and deliver the works, and they will arrange or coordinate the heritage statement when council requires one.
- If your building is individually significant or the proposal is large, you will likely need both, and getting them aligned early is the difference between a clean approval and a drawn-out one.
Engaging a registered architect early does not duplicate the consultant. It does the opposite: the architect can tell you whether you even need a separate consultant, scope what the statement must cover, and make sure the heritage case and the design are built together. That is exactly the ground we map in a feasibility session, before a dollar goes into design.
Closing
A heritage consultant and a heritage architect are not competing choices; they are different roles in the same project. The consultant assesses significance and prepares the heritage impact statement; the registered architect designs the works, lodges and negotiates the permit, and delivers the build, with the heritage response inside the design. Most substantial heritage homes need both, coordinated from the start. For more on how we approach the heritage and planning stage before design, visit our process page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: My council told me to get a heritage consultant. Do I still need an architect?
A: In most cases, yes, if you intend to design and build works. A heritage consultant prepares the significance assessment and heritage impact statement your council asks for, but they generally do not design the building, lodge and negotiate the planning permit, or run construction. A registered architect (ARBV) does that, and brings the heritage response into the design. For a substantial project you usually need both, working together.
Q: What is the difference between a heritage consultant and a heritage architect?
A: A heritage consultant is a specialist in the cultural significance of places and prepares heritage impact statements and conservation advice. A heritage architect is a registered architect with the ARBV who designs the works, prepares documentation, lodges and negotiates the permit, and can administer construction. The consultant describes and protects heritage value; the architect designs and delivers a buildable project that respects it.
Q: Is “heritage architect” a separate qualification?
A: No. It describes a registered architect who specialises in heritage work. In Victoria, only a person registered with the Architects Registration Board of Victoria may use the title “architect”, which carries professional development and insurance obligations. “Heritage” signals their area of focus, not a separate register.
Q: Can the same firm handle both the heritage statement and the design?
A: Often, yes. A registered architect can coordinate the heritage consultant’s input, or arrange the heritage impact statement where one is required, and design to it so the statement and the drawings tell one consistent story. That coordination is part of why owners engage an architect early, rather than managing two professionals separately.
Want to Learn More?
With more than 35 years designing within Melbourne’s heritage suburbs, BY Projects Architecture treats the heritage response as part of the design, not a document filed beside it. The clearer the roles at the start, the cleaner the approval and the better the home at the finish.
Citations
- “Architects and providers of architectural services must be registered with the ARBV” — Architects Registration Board of Victoria. Confirms only persons registered by the ARBV under the Architects Act may use the title “architect” in Victoria, and that registration carries CPD and professional indemnity insurance obligations. https://www.arbv.vic.gov.au/architects-and-providers-architectural-services-must-be-registered-arbv
- “Victorian Local Heritage Guidelines” — Planning Victoria. The current State guidance (which replaced Planning Practice Note 01) for assessing local heritage significance and applying the Heritage Overlay, including the significance gradings that shape what can be built. https://www.planning.vic.gov.au/guides-and-resources/council-resources/victorian-heritage-guidelines
- “Guidelines for preparing heritage impact statements” — Heritage Victoria. Sets out what a heritage impact statement should contain, including assessment of cultural heritage significance and the impact of a proposal on a heritage place. https://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/permits-and-approvals/resources-for-permit-applicants
- “Local heritage protection” — Planning Victoria. Confirms a planning permit is generally required from the local council for demolition, external alterations and new construction on land affected by a Heritage Overlay. https://www.planning.vic.gov.au/guides-and-resources/guides/all-guides/local-heritage-protection
These are the Victorian sources that govern the two roles: the ARBV register for architects, and the Heritage Overlay and heritage impact statement provisions in the Victorian planning scheme and Heritage Victoria guidance for heritage consultants.
With 35-plus years and 59 heritage approvals across Melbourne’s councils, our work is to turn a confusing brief, two roles, one protected building, into a single clear plan, so your renovation starts on solid ground and your home is built for living, not just for the listing.
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