Clare Cousins

Director, Architect

BArch, LFRAIA, Hon AIA, GAICD

Clare Cousins established her Melbourne practice, Clare Cousins Architects, in 2005. Based on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Eastern Kulin Nation, the studio is engaged in projects large and small including housing, workplace, and cultural projects. The studio is currently delivering much-needed housing typologies including specialist disability accommodation and social housing in Melbourne and regional Victoria.

Actively involved in the broader design community, Clare is a Life Fellow and Past National President of the Australian Institute of Architects. In 2021 she was awarded the Australian Institute of Architects ACT Chapter President’s Medal for her advocacy to protect Anzac Hall. For her contribution to the profession, the American Institute of Architects awarded Clare the Presidential Medal in 2018 in New York, and in 2013 she was awarded the Australian Institute of Architects’ National Emerging Architect’s Prize.

As a passionate advocate for the advancement of architecture, Clare has lectured in New Zealand and Australia, and she is involved in various professional committees at state and national level. Clare regularly contributes to strategic advisory panels and is a panellist for the National Capital Design Review Panel in the ACT.

Clare was an inaugural investor in the Nightingale housing model and recently delivered Nightingale Village with five Melbourne architectural practices as both designer and developer. The Village is now home to more than 200 families in Brunswick. The project embedded a collaboration with community housing providers Housing Choices Australia and Women’s Property Initiatives, who were allocated 27 homes ahead of public sales. Community housing residents now live alongside homeowners throughout the precinct.

Photographer: John O'Rourke