On Victoria’s Great Ocean Road, Olive Street Cabin uses a small footprint, rational plan and carefully limited palette to reconsider what an architect’s own house actually needs.

Can a darker interior draw your eye toward the garden? On a steep site in Coburg North, Sonelo Architects transform a modest brick dwelling into a family home where the landscape becomes the brightest and most defining element.

At the foothills of Mount Coot-tha, El Paso retains the external circulation and fragmented planning of an original 1980s house while reducing its materials to strengthen its relationship with the forest.

In Mount Martha, Honey House gives a speculative coastal brief a specific sense of place by turning inward, with a sunny courtyard and organising space and light along a masonry spine.

Anchored by a mature magnolia, a contemporary extension to an Edwardian home is reimagined as a calm, light-filled family home of softness and durability.

With a palette of timber, stone and bagged brick, the home feels enduring and quietly connected to its coastal landscape.

In Shady Creek, MRTN Architects arranges Shady Creek Farm House as a collection of corrugated sheds around a courtyard, allowing the home to belong to the working farm while creating refuge.

Alpine House pares life back to its essentials, where black stained plywood, refined detailing and expansive glazing offer a quiet retreat above Myrtleford, shaped by the needs of its designer.

Pop Architecture transforms a neglected Victorian in North Fitzroy by drawing on the layered history of the site, where a relocated entry, natural materials and garden-led spaces offer a grounded, enduring sense of home.

In Melbourne’s inner north-west, Ayr House overcomes a south-facing backyard by placing a private courtyard between the original home and its new addition.

Behind a beloved family home, this compact laneway dwelling balances sustainability, density and ageing-in-place while pairing material honesty with spatial generosity.

Informed by a love of camping and the native canopy of Bellarine Yellow Gums, this home is elevated above the ground, wrapped in cement sheet and timber, and defined by warmth, durability and a deep care for the environment.