The site for Rail House by Clare Cousins Architects, a fifty-metre-long, north–south block, might have appeared at first to be a relatively blank canvas. The 586-square-metre wedge of land had no existing structures to demolish and neighbours on only two of a possible three sides. But a metropolitan train line along the entire length of the western boundary meant the treatment of this elevation would be fundamental to the functionality of the house and would influence the arrangement of spaces before it.
The site, previously occupied by a period home, had some years earlier been purchased by VicTrack as part of a track-widening project. Once the track widening was complete, the site (now a slightly narrower wedge) was put on the market. It was purchased by Danielle and Simon, a couple with two children who wanted to upsize from their weatherboard home of seventeen years. Although the period home had been demolished, a heritage overlay still existed on the site, meaning any new build needed approval from authorities to ensure its integration with the surrounding houses. Before Rail House, several attempts had been made to site apartment buildings and townhouses on the block, but the site’s size and shape couldn’t cater to the requirements of anything but a single dwelling.