Explore our collection of Urban Homes
featured on Lunchbox Architect.
Urban homes come with a lot of constraints. Tight sites, neighboring houses, heritage controls and planning regulations affect how urban homes are designed. Obviously constraints breed innovation because architecturally designed urban homes are some of the most innovative and interesting houses around.
At Lunchbox Architect we pride ourselves on sourcing the best examples of small urban homes. We argue that homes don't have to be huge to great. In fact, small urban homes are easier to maintain, cheaper to run and, when designed right, a joy to live in.
When you think of ageing in place, you might imagine ramps, grab rails and a lot of linoleum. But it doesn't have to be that way...
Turn an existing clothing warehouse into a bold new home without losing its industrial aesthetic? Let's see how it turned out...
Clad in native timber, Silvertop House is at home in the country or the 'burbs and you can purchase the plans to build it on your block!
A powerhouse team of women, the BuildHer8, took a meh townhouse development and turned it into something quite exceptional...
This house crossed with a warehouse is the perfect live/work space for a family who are always making or doing something...
With the water at the back door and a lush tropical courtyard bringing in light and breezes, this duplex has the best of both worlds.
A terrace house typically makes you think, long, narrow and dark. This terrace might be long and narrow, but it's also light and lush!
Taking advantage of a mature native landscape, this home captures all the right views so it feels like you're floating in the treetops.
A focus on the small changes with the biggest impact was key to keeping the renovation of this 1980s project home budget-friendly.
Looks can be deceiving. Hidden behind this narrow frontage is a spacious, light-filled and fun home thanks to a recent renovation.
For a client who lives alone, this renovation was about creating the perfect home for their lifestyle, not more space.
Good design means you can live larger with less, meaning this compact home feels bright, spacious and surrounded by greenery.
Damp-ridden, cold and leaking, this 1960s home needed a revamp. Luckily, a sensitive approach retains the home's unique character.
A pigeon pair of townhouses allow two brothers and their young families to live side-by-side; the perfect place to raise their kids.
By removing poorly constructed add-ons and creating an open-plan living area as the new heart, this quaint cottage is transformed...
A complex, compact site on a slope and facing a busy road calls for a creative solution: switching the front and back!
A double garage has the perfect amount of space for a new multi-functional studio the owners will get far more use out of.
A house can become dysfunctional as poorly planned renovations alter the layout and strip away original details. But it can be fixed!
Built to Passive House standards, this home has exceptional energy-efficiency performance for comfortable living year-round.
Half greenhouse, half barn; despite being in a dense inner suburb, this home means it feels like it could be in the country!
Getting light into living areas with a south-facing backyard is tricky. Here it's handled elegantly for an efficient and bright home.
Wanting a place to entertain friends and family, this new addition creates a grand living area overlooking the garden
This heritage warehouse has been sensitively transformed into a home with the careful insertion of joinery units to divide the space.
Far from the classic box-like addition, a series of unique spaces unfurl from the rear of the cottage, opening up to light and garden.
A series of expert moves brings in more light, improves livability and connects this terrace to its courtyard all without extending.
Bungalows are charming homes, but they tend to be dark. This addition finds a way to bring light into the depths of this bungalow.
The front verandah of this Californian Bungalow is reinterpreted at the rear of the home to create a shady outdoor living space.
Not that you'd know it now, but this sleek, modern-Japanese-inspired home was once a tired '70s brick pad and what a transformation!
To create space for the kids as they grow, this new bedroom wing sits beautifully in the landscape and meets BAL requirements.
Wesley Spencer from RARA Architecture was shocked at a recent auction. Find out why...
The owners would have ripped this out-of-place fireplace out if they'd had their way, but it's become the centrepiece of this reno...
Creating a light-filled addition where the garden and outdoor spaces feel like an extension of the living areas for year-round use.
On a tricky, but naturally beautiful battle-axe site, this home celebrates its assets and minimises its drawbacks.
Creative ways to bring more light into the home, even when the backyard doesn't get much sun, makes this home light-filled and airy.
The charred timber addition float in front of the home, complementing the original cream brick and transforming the street appeal.
This Carlton terrace renovation updates ageing interiors to create the perfect home for a collector of colourful art and furniture.
The amount of space you have is one thing, but its functionality, light and flow is a whole other thing.
Sitting on top of the garage with leafy views, the new self-contained living space is perfect for adult children or visiting family.
An addition to this period home sits comfortably alongside the original, oriented to catch the light and open up the backyard.
Access to natural light is so important, yet often overlooked. With thoughtful design, your home can be light and bright year-round.
It's not what you expect when you think of a modular home, but this tricky house continues the surprises continue inside...
Despite a seemingly impossible set of constraints, this terrace has been transformed into a light-filled and sustainable family home.
The renovation of this post-war house leans on mid-century details and views of the native landscape to create a special home.
A generous north-facing courtyard becomes the best part of this house, bringing light, breezes and the outdoors into every space.
Chimneys of the old brickworks immediately caught the architect's attention and she knew this renovation needed to capture that view!
Transforming a 1960s apricot-brick unit into the perfect bachelor pad meant rethinking the space and adapting what was already there...
Rather than relocate, this family decided on a Queenslander renovation to create the home of their dreams in the street they love.
This studio was designed to minimise costs by maximising efficiency, creating a flexible space that was largely prefabricated off-site.
Others overlooked this heritage-listed home because of its exposure on three sides, but a playful addition turns it into an asset.
A new 60 square metre addition creates a bright and modern living space for this inner-city home.
Perfect for entertaining, this new living pavilion at the back of a 1910s home is light, airy and open to the backyard.
An addition which doesn't overshadow the original heritage house, but improves the home's spaciousness, access to light and the yard.
If you love the curved lines and detailing of the Art Deco period, but crave open spaces and natural light, this home is for you...
Once home to the local milkman, this quaint cottage has been transformed into a light and bright home with a surprising sense of space.
A simple, rectangular, double-storey addition was a cost-effective way to gain the space this family needed. Plus some indulgences...
Purchasing a property can be a daunting undertaking. But putting in an offer doesn't need to be. Here's how to put in an offer once you've found the home you want...
This home, inspired by a jewellery box, is perfect for your most treasured people and possessions: beautiful, safe and ordered.
Modern homes can be criticised for lacking character, but modern doesn't need to equal sterile.
Not everyone needs a completely custom-designed home. Now you can access high-quality architectural house designs for a flat fee.
From the street, all you can see is a sliver of the stunning new addition, designed to protect the heritage value of the original home.
At 52 square metres, this two-storey terrace was about the same size as a two-bedroom apartment, now there's space to entertain guests.
Even a block in a typical housing estate can benefit from an architect's touch, creating a home that's a joy to live in year-round...
Transforming a 1980s house into a warehouse loft-inspired home involved removing the roof but the results are more than worth it!
Every good architectural story needs a hero. In this renovation, it's a striking bookshelf which screens a work-from-home space...
This addition to a post-war brick home has a trick up its sleeve to guarantee access to sunlight despite the backyard facing south.
Defying its narrow site, challenging east-west orientation and heritage restrictions, this skinny home manages to feel spacious.
A west-facing backyard and poorly-designed additions left this family with dark mornings and overheated afternoons, but no longer...
Imagine having a classic modernist house in the family for three generations? How would you sensitively renovate it?
Staging the renovation of this home into two phases made budgetary sense and allows the home to adapt to the family's changing needs.
Buying a new home and selling your current property can be tricky, that's where a bridging loan might be able to help...
The roof and layout of the original home serve as the inspiration for a new addition, but a modern twist creates perfect family home.
This 1980s-era home already had a stellar location. Thanks to an internal reno, it has everything else you'd want in a home, too...
The substantial renovation of this terrace transforms the home, but reminders of the past are woven in to create a rich tapestry.
In many ways, Feng Shui aligns with the principles of good design. Here, Feng Shui achieves a light, harmonious and delightful home.
It's amazing how high ceilings can offer your home an extra sense of space, just take a look at this light and bright example...
Three distinct pavilions create the breathing room needed for maximum light and breezes on this narrow inner-city block.
A beautiful new living space wrapping around a courtyard deck plus main bedroom suite creates the perfect home for a family of six.
A beach house doesn't need to feel like a glass box on stilts, this home feels intimate while still celebrating the views.
Pooling for a pool: would you join forces with your parents to create the ultimate inner-city pad complete with a rooftop pool?
With the site's Bushfire Attack Level of Flame Zone, achieving the incredible expanses of glazing took incredible attention to detail.
Bringing together all the things they loved from previous houses, their new home represents the good life for this family of five.
The only way was up at this home, but renovating meant this family were able to achieve everything they wanted without having to move.
With the option of renovating or selling, this family chose to renovate to stay in the area they, but that was easier said than done!
With its lush, wild setting, this home could be worlds away from the city and that's exactly what the owners wanted to achieve.
Architects show us some of their proudest moments and explain what they love so much about what they do.
By rethinking the layout of this home, a more efficient plan that's perfect for modern living was found within the existing footprint.
Stunning Queenslander renovation retains the character of the original home while creating a modern addition for a growing family.
'It's the way things have always been done' doesn't mean it's the best solution! Questioning the norm can unlock hidden gold...
This post-war brick house has been transformed into a stylish modern home with a thoughtful addition and creative reworking.
Celebrating the suburb's history, this laneway house demonstrates how to create high-quality housing in the inner city with flair.
Designed to make the most of the view, even from the backyard, this prefab modular home is like a viewing scope towards the ocean.
It's hard to believe 1994 was nearly 30 years ago, but this home was sure showing its age. No more thanks to a fun and bright revamp.
Internal courtyards are the answer to finding natural daylight and preventing overlooking issues in this inner-city renovation.