Courtyard House
Albert Park, Melbourne
A new house on an Albert Park corner by Clare Cousins Architects, built for a downsizing couple where an 1885 corner store had stood beyond saving. The new building repeats the shop's footprint, chamfered corner and all, and the old street sign went back up on the facade; from the street the two storeys read as one, keeping faith with the single-fronted terraces around it.
The courtyard, by Eckersley Garden Architecture, breaks the rules by facing south: a sheer two-storey wall next door blocks the northern sun, so the architects gave the light to the garden and let the courtyard work as a lantern, bouncing it back into the rooms that wrap around it. In 2024 the house won a Victorian award from the Australian Institute of Architects and the Houses Awards prize for a new house under 200 square metres. Photographed by Tom Ross.
Clare Cousins Architects
A Melbourne practice founded in 2005 by Clare Cousins, working from North Melbourne across housing, workplaces and cultural projects, with much of its current work in disability and social housing.
Architecture Clare Cousins Architects (@clarecousins). Photography Tom Ross (@tomross.xyz). Editor @sophlew_says. Published on estliving.com. Seen via @mukacasestudy and @est_living.
The picture comes from this post on Instagram, with more in a second post.
Researched August 2026. I credit each piece as carefully as I can; if you know more about this one, message me on Instagram.