If your project carries heritage constraints, a complex site, layers of planning history, or simply deserves more than a standard response, that's where we come in.
Kister Architects is a Melbourne-based practice with 25 years of experience in high-end residential architecture, heritage renovation, and the kind of documentation that gets projects built the way they were designed. We work across Port Phillip, Yarra, Glen Eira, and the Mornington Peninsula with clients who understand that good architecture takes time, expertise, and genuine collaboration.
We are a small studio by intention. Every project receives Ilana's direct involvement from the first conversation to the final inspection. You work with the person whose name is on the door.
Our work is shaped by three convictions.
Place comes first. We read a site carefully before a line is drawn. Solar access, heritage context, council overlays, streetscape character, and the way morning light moves through a space all inform the response before design has begun.
Detail is the work. A well-resolved building is one where the decisions that don't call attention to themselves carry the most weight. We are precise about materials, junctions, and the quality of light in a room.
Buildings should earn their footprint. Every project we take on is designed to be energy efficient, spatially generous, and built for the long term. Biophilic design principles are not a trend for us. They are a foundational commitment to connecting people with the natural environment.
We have particular expertise in heritage overlay projects, where the tension between original fabric and contemporary living is most productively resolved through deep knowledge of planning law, building regulation, and architectural history. We enjoy that complexity. It makes the work better.
Kister Architects is a Melbourne-based architecture and interior design practice with 25 years of experience in high-end residential work. We are a small studio by intention. That is not a limitation. It is the point.
We work on homes that are particular to their sites and to the people who live in them. We read orientation, heritage context, council overlays, and the way a street sits before we put a line down. The site tells us something before the design begins. We listen to it.
Our projects are shaped by three things: spatial generosity, material honesty, and a genuine understanding of how natural light moves through a building across a day and across a year. We do not treat these as design features. They are the work.
We have deep experience in heritage overlay projects, complex sites, and the kind of planning history that can stall a project before it starts. We know how to move through that process and how to protect the design intent while doing it. We are on site throughout construction, collaborating with the builder to make sure what was designed is what gets built.
Our approach draws on biophilic design principles. Not as a label but as a genuine commitment to connecting people with light, air, materials, and the natural environment. We believe a well-designed home improves the quality of daily life in ways that are hard to quantify and impossible to ignore.
Every project we take on is different. That is not a marketing line. It is the only way we know how to work.
ILANA KISTER
Director/Design Architect
Ilana founded Kister Architects in 2001 after graduating from RMIT with a Bachelor of Architecture (Honours). She leads every project from the first client conversation through to construction completion, covering concept design, heritage impact assessment, interior design, full documentation, and contract administration.
Over 25 years she has built detailed working knowledge of Victorian planning scheme overlays, heritage citation, ResCode and NCC compliance, and the council processes of Port Phillip, Yarra, Glen Eira, and the Mornington Peninsula.
Her design sensibility is shaped by the specific history and character of each site. She is precise about materials, attentive to light, and experienced enough in planning and regulation to protect a design through the full process of approvals and construction.
Clients work directly with Ilana. Not a project manager. Not a graduate. The architect.
DANIELLE FEDDEN
Design Draftsperson
Danielle brings 25 years of experience across high-end residential, multi-residential, and large-scale commercial projects. She holds an Associate Diploma in Applied Science (Architectural Drafting).
Her work is the backbone of every project set that leaves this office. She draws with precision, documents with care, and holds the technical standard that gets complex projects through permit and into construction without avoidable errors.
At Kister Architects, drawing quality is not separate from design quality. Danielle is the reason that is true.
