70 Cobden — Luxury Custom Home Build, Kew Melbourne

A design-led luxury residence in Kew defined by warm materiality, curved architectural form, and a fully integrated design, construction, and furnishing approach. 515 sqm custom home delivered at $4.15M — complete architectural, construction, and interior integration.

Luxury modern home facade featuring curved glazing and stone frontage at 70 Cobden Melbourne by Albert Living.

A large-scale, architect-designed family home integrating custom joinery, natural stone, and refined interior detailing.

Location & Size

Kew

515 sqm Area

Handover

2026

Scheduled Completion

Project Credits

Albert Living

Design, Build, Joinery & Stone

Project Overview

70 Cobden is a custom luxury residence in Kew, Melbourne, delivered by Albert Living as a fully integrated design and construction project.

Designed to respond to a constrained inner-east site, the home maximises natural light, openness, and spatial flow while maintaining a refined architectural presence.

Key Highlights

• Integrated design, construction, and interior fit-out by Albert Living
• Bespoke joinery and material detailing throughout
• Built with early-stage cost clarity and construction precision
• Typical project range in Kew: $8,000–$11,000 per sqm

Project Credits
Architecture, Design & Interiors: Albert Living
Builder: TBA

Engineering: Rexicon Consulting Engineers
Building Surveyor: Austop Building Consultants Pty Ltd

Landscape Design: TBA
Landscaping: TBA

Location

KEW, VICTORIA

Project Type

Custom Luxury Residence

Size

515 sqm

Status

Ongoing

Year

2026

Project Value

$4.15M

Luxury home Kew Melbourne project overview

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70 Cobden

Living Spaces

Open-plan living, dining, and kitchen areas are unified through consistent material language, allowing the home to function seamlessly for both everyday living and large-scale entertaining.

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70 Cobden

Private Spaces

Bedrooms, ensuites, and guest spaces are designed as private retreats, balancing comfort, material warmth, and spatial separation from the main living areas.

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70 Cobden

Challenges & Solutions

Each design challenge was resolved through an integrated process, aligning architectural intent with construction execution from the outset.

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Challenges

Creating a premium, long-lasting architectural home while avoiding the predictable “safe” aesthetic common in high-end residential builds in Kew.

Responding to a traditional Kew streetscape dominated by rectilinear forms — while maintaining architectural presence without disrupting neighbourhood character.

Managing a deep, narrow 575sqm block with natural slope, including limited natural light through the centre of the home and achieving a seamless connection to the rear living and pool area.

Balancing contemporary architecture with Kew’s established leafy identity, ensuring the home feels modern without conflicting with surrounding heritage context.

Designing a true indoor–outdoor connection, where living spaces extend functionally into outdoor areas rather than acting as purely visual extensions.

Establishing a strong material identity that defines the home architecturally, without overwhelming the space or compromising long-term livability

Solution

These challenges were resolved through close collaboration between architect and builder from early design stages, ensuring architectural intent was preserved while aligning with construction feasibility and cost expectations.

The home’s spatial planning was carefully developed to address the constraints of a narrow, sloping site — introducing controlled openings, voids, and transitions to bring natural light into the centre of the home while maintaining privacy.

The facade was designed to sit comfortably within Kew’s established streetscape, using proportion, material selection, and detailing to create a contemporary identity without disrupting the surrounding character.

Indoor–outdoor integration was achieved through level transitions, large-format openings, and consistent material language, allowing living areas to extend naturally into the rear landscape and pool zone as functional spaces.

Material selections were resolved early in the process, ensuring a cohesive architectural language across all elements of the home while balancing durability, maintenance, and long-term livability.

70 Cobden

Materials & Details

Material selection at 70 Cobden is driven by a warm, restrained palette — muted greens, clay tones, and dusty pastels forming the base of this luxury home in Kew Melbourne. Rather than reflecting light, surfaces are designed to absorb it, allowing natural materials to carry depth, texture, and visual weight throughout the interior.

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Luxury bathroom featuring Rosa Norvegia marble and Arabescato Cielo herringbone pattern at 70 Cobden by Albert Living, an architectural home in Kew Victoria.

Material selection at 70 Cobden is driven by longevity, tactility, and the way finishes evolve over time — a defining characteristic of truly resolved luxury homes in Kew Melbourne.

Heavily veined Arabescato Cielo marble is used as a dominant surface throughout the home, introducing movement and visual tension against the controlled grain of custom oak joinery. In key wet areas, Rosato marble laid in a herringbone pattern establishes a rhythmic geometry that contrasts against the fluidity of larger stone slabs.

Externally, crazy cut stone paving extends into the architectural language of the home — deliberately irregular, textured, and organic. This is contrasted internally by more controlled surfaces, including French pattern floor tiles and honed natural stone, creating a clear transition between outdoor ruggedness and interior refinement.


Ribbed timber panelling and hand-applied plaster finishes — including Marmorino — manipulate light across vertical planes, allowing shadow to articulate depth rather than relying on colour contrast alone.

Matte finishes are used extensively to absorb light and emphasise material density, while junctions between stone, timber, and plaster are intentionally expressed rather than concealed — reinforcing the tactile thresholds between spaces.

Every material in this custom home in Kew is selected not for immediate visual impact, but for how it performs over time — designed to patina, soften, and record use.

This approach reflects the same material philosophy applied across Albert Living’s custom luxury home builds in Melbourne, where finishes are treated as part of the architecture, not decoration.

Material selections were carefully considered not only for visual impact, but for durability, maintenance, and long-term performance — ensuring the home remains refined and functional over time.

Luxury bathroom featuring Rosa Norvegia marble vanity and Arabescato Cielo herringbone wall at 70 Cobden by Albert Living, a modern luxury residence in Kew Melbourne.

70 Cobden Phase

Integrated Design to Delivery

70 Cobden was delivered through Albert Living’s fully integrated model — where architectural design, construction, joinery, and stone are developed and executed under one team. This eliminates handover risk and ensures every decision made in design is carried through to completion.

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Luxury modern home facade featuring stone entry wall and landscaped courtyard at 70 Cobden Melbourne by Albert Living.

Phase 1

Design

The project began with a constrained inner-east site, requiring careful planning to maximise light, openness, and spatial flow. Architectural design and structural engineering were developed together in-house from the outset, allowing key decisions — including glazing proportions, ceiling heights, and circulation — to be resolved early.

Material direction was also established at this stage, with curved forms, natural stone, and timber elements coordinated as part of a single design system rather than separate selections.

Luxury home Toorak Melbourne featuring stone and custom joinery by Albert Living

Phase 2

Construction

Construction progressed with a tightly coordinated programme, where design intent was already fully resolved prior to site works. Large-format glazing, curved structural elements, and detailed façade treatments were executed without redesign or compromise during the build phase.

Because design and construction were aligned from the beginning, site decisions remained consistent with the original architectural vision, avoiding delays typically caused by design changes or consultant handovers.

Phase 3

Joinery

All custom joinery was designed and produced in-house, allowing cabinetry, wardrobes, and integrated furniture to be resolved alongside the architectural drawings. This ensured alignment in proportions, material finishes, and spatial integration.

Rather than adapting standard cabinetry to suit the space, each joinery element was purpose-built, enabling seamless transitions between rooms and maintaining consistency across the home.

Phase 4

Stone

Stone selection, detailing, and fabrication were managed as part of the same integrated workflow. This allowed surfaces to be coordinated directly with joinery and architectural elements, ensuring continuity across benchtops, wall cladding, and feature details.

By keeping stone in-house, tolerances, finishes, and installation sequencing were controlled precisely, avoiding the coordination issues that typically arise between separate trades.

Luxury living room featuring Arabescato Cielo Marble Fluted Wall Tiles detailing at 70 Cobden by Albert Living, luxury home Kew, Melbourne

Phase 5

Handover

At completion, the home was delivered as a fully resolved environment, with all architectural, interior, and material elements aligned with the original design intent.

Because every stage — from design to final installation — was managed under one team, the result is a cohesive, high-end residence with no disconnect between concept and execution.

Luxury breakfast bar featuring sculptural marble counter and curved seating at 70 Cobden Melbourne by Albert Living.

What It Costs to Build a Luxury Home in Kew

Luxury homes in Kew typically range between $8,000 to $11,000+ per square metre, depending on site conditions, architectural complexity, and level of customisation.

Projects at the scale and complexity of 70 Cobden — incorporating double-height glazing, curved structural elements, natural stone, and fully integrated furniture — typically sit at the upper end of this range.

For context:
• 70 Cobden — 515 sqm, $4.15M
• 100 Derby — 240 sqm, $2.4M

This demonstrates how cost scales with size, structural complexity, and level of finish.

Albert Living provides detailed cost planning early in the design phase, ensuring clarity before construction begins. This eliminates uncertainty and allows for controlled decision-making throughout the project.

For a deeper breakdown, see our luxury home build cost guide in Melbourne.

Luxury kitchen featuring green cabinetry and marble splashback at 70 Cobden by Albert Living, a luxury home in Hawthorn Melbourne.

Why Albert Living

Albert Living specialises in architecturally driven luxury homes in Kew and across Melbourne’s inner east.

Few builders operate at the intersection of design, construction, joinery, and furniture integration at this level. By managing the entire process, Albert Living ensures that architectural intent is not lost during construction.

What defines the approach:

  • Open-book cost transparency from early design stages
  • End-to-end delivery (design, build, joinery, furniture)
  • Strong consultant and trade coordination
  • High level of construction precision and detailing

Each project is delivered as a cohesive whole — balancing architectural integrity with real-world functionality.

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FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions — Luxury Home Builders Kew

Common questions about building a luxury custom home in Kew, Victoria — from planning permits and approvals through to construction timelines and integrated furniture.

Construction costs for a luxury custom home in Kew typically range from $8,000 to $11,000 per square metre depending on design complexity, site conditions, and finish level. A 300 sqm architecturally designed home in Kew would generally range from $2.4M to $3.3M in construction value, excluding land.

A full custom architectural build in Kew typically takes 12 to 18 months from initial design brief through to occupancy permit — including 2 to 3 months for design and documentation, 60 days for building permit approval, and 9 to 12 months for construction.

Albert Living has an in-house architectural team that manages all design work directly — you do not need to engage a separate architect. Our architectural design, structural engineering, interior design, and visualisation are all developed in-house as part of the full build scope.

A true luxury home builder in Kew manages the full complexity of a high-end residential build — architectural design, council approvals, construction, custom joinery, stone finishes, and integrated furniture — under one roof. Albert Living is the only builder in Melbourne's inner east delivering all of these under one integrated team, from the first conversation to the day you move in.

Building in Kew is governed by the City of Boroondara, which applies neighbourhood character guidelines, heritage overlays, and significant tree protections. For most single dwelling constructions in Kew, only a building permit is required. Sites within a heritage overlay may require a planning permit from Boroondara Council before any work can begin.

70-cobden-luxury-home-build-front-facade-albert-living

Start Your Luxury Home in Kew

Albert Living works with a select number of projects each year in Kew and Melbourne's inner east. If you are planning a luxury custom home and want design, engineering, construction, joinery, and stone under one roof — we would like to hear from you.