[4] Born in Melbourne, at age 8 Cousins moved to London, and then later to Berlin as her father who practised as a surgeon pursued further medical education.
The couple purchased their brick Edwardian home in 2007, and three years later did a major renovation designed by Cousins, and built by Pederson and his company Maben.
While working on the Aurora Spa Retreat on the roof of St Kilda's iconic Prince of Wales Hotel she met Wood Marsh.
[9] Cousins has also served as the Victorian chapter councillor,[10] an active member of the Victorian Small and Medium Practice Forums, chair of the Member Services Committee (Victoria), chair of the Architecture Australia Editorial Committee, Constructive Mentoring Program mentor (Victoria) a juror at both state and national levels of the Australian Institute of Architects' National Architecture Awards program.
[11] In 2014, Cousins and Pederson invested $100,000 in Nightingale 1.0, a not-for-profit replicable, triple bottom line housing model with an overarching priority towards social, economic, and environmental sustainability.