Alfresco in Canberra

We're building in Canberra and deciding whether to have an alfresco area or not.

Our block's long side will face north, so a lot of the living areas will face north. The kitchen and meals/family is one big room, kitchen to the left and meals/family to the right. The kitchen will face north and the alfresco is in front of the kitchen.

Pro: Nice alfresco area for outdoor living in summer.
See to be the trend these days to integrate indoor/outdoor living.

Cons: Blocks sun from entering the kitchen, though there'll be light entering from the meals/family area.
Eats into indoor living area.

Comments? Other pros and cons? Also what do you think about future saleability of the property?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Light reduction is definitely an issue, but you could always add a skylight to your kitchen if you think it necessary (assuming yours is a single storey house). I'd be more concerned about loss of winter sun, with your climate, so calculate the depth of your alfresco area roof carefully to take that into account.

We have a 5m deep alfresco room (with the house forming its three sides) that faces north-east, and we find that the sun comes right into the area in winter, and even into our lounge beyond. In summer the windows are in full shade and the outdoor room itself receives only early morning sun, so it works well.

Another option you might consider is a movable roof - like a retractable awning, or one of those Vergola-type roofs. That way you can switch between sun or shade whenever you want. A solid roof and some sort of heating will extend the use of the area outside the warmest months though.

As for saleability, I don't know what the market is like in Canberra, but outdoor entertaining areas here are definitely a selling point. It was a major attraction of our old house when we sold - the house itself was nothing special (and tiny to boot), but the north facing decked pergola gave it wide appeal.

Thank you Kek for your response, although you're not in Canberra the information you've given is still useful and certainly got me thinking about the desireability of a alfresco area. I'll check out those sun angle calculator and see if I can work it out.

Hi Gelatiii,

Great name!!

I am in exactly the same position as you are. Long side facing north, building in Canberra, going to build in Crace.

We will have an alfresco area and got our first design which indicates 1.5 metre eave. We also have our living kitchen area facing through to the alfresco area.

Apparently this should shade the alfresco glass doors in summer but should let the winter sunshine hit the windows. We are trying to validate this.

Did you have any luck in validating information about alfresco and shade and sunshine etc?

very interested in whether you went alfresco or not and how you went with shade and sunshine......

I must admit the retractable awning sounds great.....depending on cost...

Ta
Thasaman

Hi Thasaman. There's some info on retractable awnings in the Outdoor Living forum here: http://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=38726

We've found ours fantastic for reducing summer heat in a north-west-facing room. They can be impossible to use in high wind conditions though, so if you're in a very windy area, it might not be the best option.

Hi Thasaman

Due to developer requirement we have to be a certain distance from the side fence so our house pretty much has to be l-shaped, so no under the roofline alfresco for us. We have however put in an alfresco slab and will probably have a pergola, vergola or seashell awning. The latter two options are pretty expensive but it'll give the option of having sun or shade when you want.

Similar to us except the direction that our alfresco faces is a bit different, ours faces north-northwest and the roofline of it sticks out from the house a bit. But for all intents and purposes it is still a cave. From our glass sliding doors off the family room to the extremity of the eaves on our alfresco is 6 metres. In mid winter the sunshine will just reach the back wall of the family room which is 5 metres from the sliding doors. At midday in mid summer the alfresco deck is completely shaded.

As with all pergolas and alfresco areas we show clients shadow forecasts to the living areas of there house,
For the small outlay it will show exactly what will happen at various stages of the year