When architects design for themselves, the brief becomes a kind of manifesto. For Sarah Neale and Sam Butler of Loupe Architecture, that masterplan began with a cottage that had already lived several lives.
“We were looking for a character cottage with good bones and a sense of history, something that already had a story to it,” the pair recall. The site came with trade-offs: a busy road on one side, a quiet cul-de-sac with a strong sense of community on the other, and a north-facing aspect that made everything else worth it. “It felt like a place where we could build on what was already there rather than replace it.” The result is Cornerstone, a character Queenslander on a prominent Stones Corner block, reworked into a home and architecture studio for (and by) Loupe Architecture in one.
LIVING IN A CHARACTER QUEENSLANDER BEFORE RENOVATING
Rather than rushing to the drawing board, the pair moved in and lived with the house for a year. “We paid attention to how it worked, where the light came from, how breeze and sound moved through it, and how it felt to live in day-to-day,” they explain.
That patience shaped the project’s defining decision: not to extend the footprint at all. Renovations from previous decades had left the house feeling fragmented, with a low, underused undercroft below. Instead of building outward, Sarah and Sam opened the house up from within, carving a double-height void with planting that reads as an outdoor room at the centre of the home. Working with their builders, excavated soil was reshaped into subtle topography in the backyard, realised alongside Build and Grow Landscapes, changing how the garden is moved through and making it feel larger than it is.
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A PERFORATED METAL FACADE THAT WORKS LIKE A LANTERN
Cornerstone’s material signature emerged through problem-solving by Loupe Architecture. The central void needed to filter light, allow breeze and provide privacy at considerable scale, a role timber lattice has traditionally played on Queensland homes. “Timber wouldn’t perform well over time at that height,” the pair explain. “The perforation does the same job, just with more control and durability.”
Folded rather than flat, the perforated metal carries its own structure and depth. “It’s not applied, it becomes part of the building,” they say. “It changes throughout the day, softening light in the afternoon and reading more like a lantern at night.”
Elsewhere, the palette by Loupe Architecture stays deliberately restrained. Bluestone grounds the lower level, a personal reference chosen to age with time, while blackbutt runs across ceilings and joinery for consistency, alongside the original VJ lining. Among the more personal touches is an integrated record and listening space that carries sound through the lower level and out to the garden room. Upstairs, bathrooms follow the palette in quieter tones of white tile, bluestone and timber, with a skylit shower in the ensuite, while the powder room downstairs turns expressive, its colour drawn from the original house.
HOME STUDIO DESIGN: WORK AT THE FRONT, LIFE AT THE BACK
Cornerstone holds two lives at once, and the site itself showed the way to organise them. The main roadside frontage became the Loupe Architecture studio, entered through the original front entry, while the quieter rear became the family’s private domain. “As you move through the house, it naturally transitions from work to home,” the pair say. “Separate entries reinforce that without making it feel forced.”
Living in the finished home has confirmed the instinct. “The biggest surprise is how well it supports both work and home. It’s less about separation and more about how you move between states of mind. The house doesn’t need to tell you what it is, it just supports how you use it.”
HERITAGE RENOVATION: OLD AND NEW, OVERLAPPING
Nowhere in Cornerstone will you find a hard line between eras. “We weren’t interested in creating a hard line between old and new,” Sarah and Sam explain. “The idea was to let them overlap in a quieter way.” Original elements carry through alongside the new work, and the house keeps its original scale and street presence. Built in stages under a guiding master plan, the project reads as one resolved piece.
For its architects, the hope is that Cornerstone says something beyond its corner block. “We hope people see that it’s possible to hold onto history while living in a contemporary way,” they reflect. “The house responds to climate, using light, breeze and shade rather than closing itself off. Trust the climate and keep it simple.”
Photography: Alanna Jayne McTiernan
