West facing corner block . Please advise

Hello All ,

I’m sure there would be hundreds of questions on here for a corner block.

In brief I have west facing entrance . I have selected a design . However I’m failing to decide best window configuration for light and air so that the house can have plenty of light and breeze . Can you all please help . Negative comments welcome.




Thank you all in advance 🙏🏻🙂

Maximise north facing windows to your living areas (family room, living room).
Minimise or remove East and West facing windows in your bedrooms (use south and north facing instead).

Move your covered outdoor living area to the east, so it is not shading off your dining and living areas.

This brilliant government website will teach you everything you need to know,

https://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/orientation

I’m failing to add alfresco to rear as there is retention wall . Also not sure about widows facing east. I’ve followed that website but still unable to understand it completely . Should I hire an architecture ?

I think you've got a great opportunity on a small allotment to get a very decent performing house if you select the right plan.

Not sure of your situation exactly, but I would go with a custom design and as others have said, maximise the northern solar aspect to your main living areas. In your case you could probably get all living and master rooms with northern glazing. You're not really giving up views as you don't have much space on the block anyway.

Hug the southern boundary as much as possible and have as minimal glazing on the western side as possible (Make sure for adequate shading where you do). Similar with the eastern side although you could probably get away with a bit more.

This all depends on what you have on the northern side of the block (and beyond) . Are there tall trees blocking the sun in the winter?

This is what I would present to a builder as a start. The garage is already in the prime spot copping western sun. You could even sacrifice some northern sun for an alfresco. Alternatively you can leave out the alfresco and later build a pergola with deciduous vines or retractable shade.



On the subjective side, I would only question the media room. You already have two living areas. Would the media room be utilised given that you could use the living room as the main TV room?

Other than that you've got some good potential there

A have a bit more time to write now, so will start of by asking a few questions.

Where are you located? The climate in Hobart is very different to Cairns, so a home's design should be tailored for local climatic conditions.

Do you have young children, are you happy to have their rooms near the front door.

What is you family size? How many bedrooms will be used regularly? The reason I ask is the bedroom on the corner, with west facing windows may not be the most pleasant place to sleep. West facing bedrooms receive a lot of sun in the late afternoon, so can be unbearably hot on summer evenings.

The problem room is that NW room, you don't want it copping western sun. So you either want a room that is not a regularly used bedroom here, or you want to design a western facade that looks ok without western windows in this room (you'd locate them on the northern side).

No idea of your family size, but wish people would build houses that meet their individual requirements, as Australians build the largest homes on the planet. Not good for the environment, or the bank balance. Your plan has 4 bedrooms & 3 living areas. If that's what's required, so be it. But if not, you could get a better outcome with a smaller home, with rooms doing double duty. For example, a second living area or media room that also serves as a first bedroom.

A smaller building footprint will also mean you have more room on your block to get things right.

If not sure what the eastern retaining wall will look like, & unsure about your comment. But your private outdoor space will be to the east. So I'd try to locate the covered alfresco area to the east. It will help shade your eastern windows.

Which brings me to your question about orientation & windows. Is recommend not only reading the orientation section on the website I listed. Read it all. But start with the 'passive design' section, & the 'design for climate' section.

What the website is saying is that northern windows are great. As they are shaded by eaves in summer, when the sun is high in the sky, but allow winter sunshine in, as the sun is lower in the sky. It's also saying that eaves are ineffective at shading eastern & western sun, as it's lower in the sky. Western sunshine is particularly bad, as the sun is in this direction at the hottest time of the day. Southern windows won't see sun in winter, so will only leak heat.

But you can't only have north facing windows, very, very few homes are designed this way. You need windows in nearly every room, for day lighting & ventilation. Plus you want cross-ventilation, breezes flowing through your home in summer, to cool it off. So you need windows in more than one direction.

It's dependent on your climate, & wind directions, but in general you want a high proportion of glazing (& living areas) facing north. What's ideal will vary, depending on your location, & your design.

But ideal glazing proportions may be something 50% north, 25% east, 25% south, 0% west. Living areas facing north, which are zoned, meaning they can be shutoff from the rest of the house with a door, to retain heat. Bedrooms to the south, or east. Depending on wind direction, they will flow through the home to help cooling in summer.

I think you can do better than your current plan - the kitchen may be a bit dark, with little ventilation for cooking smells, dining may be a bit dark, shaded by the alfresco - but if you want to stick with this plan, you could incorporate some clerestory (highlight) windows. To do this you could use a split skillion roof, with north facing windows above the kitchen, & party of the entrance hallway too.

Or, play around with the plan, & as others are advising, aim to locate more bedrooms to the south, living rooms to the north. If the northern road is quite busy you may consider clerestory windows in your north facing rooms to improve privacy.

Thank you very much for your comments . The plan is Milan 27 from Coral homes and they have virtual display as well. In standard plans with most builders only narrow max 12 m frontage plans have kitchen on the side to the left . ( north facing ) . I have seen 200 sqm houses and I think that I would like a house bigger than that . I’m building in Griffin in Queensland.

I think a custom build or this plan probably may suite well. My sales agent advised that I can’t have racked ceiling . And in normal ceiling I’m not sure if I can have ceiling window to let more light in . I would appreciate if you all could look at virtual tour of the house. I definitely think though that 3 living areas may be unnecessary . So I think I should approach a custom builder and may be I can get walk in pantry , racked ceiling , media room , large master bedroom and 3 normal 3x3 rooms and a face west facing having no windows .


We are husband and wife at the moment . However I’m considering future proof build plan. So that in the future a couple with 2 children can be happy too. The block is clear block having no trees. It’s an estate . On the north there is a road. ( left ) . Neighbour to the south. 4 meters retaining wall to the east . Hope this helps.

stonesthrow your reply definitely helped me clear out some ideas. Thank you

Attached are photos. My lot is on the left towards the road

Same problems, the covered alfresco shades much of your living areas. Meaning they'll be dark, & cold in winter.

A couple of solutions. Either get rid of the roof above the alfresco, using a horizontal awning or pergola instead. Or do a total redesign.

If you're redesigning, I'd do something like this. Move the minor bedrooms to the south side of the home, east of the garage. Move the media room to the NW corner. Move the master a bit north, replacing the living/dining rooms, so it is between the minor bedrooms & the covered alfresco. Move the family/kitchen/living/dining rooms further west, so they are in the northern side of the home. Keep the alfresco in its current location. This plan should greatly reduce the length of the entrance hallway too, saving space. Only issue may be privacy of the master, especially separation to the minor bedrooms. If they're not all occupied, the one nearest the master could be used study, second living, guest room.

Whatever you do, the room in the NW corner, currently bed 3, will get hot in summer. Better to relocate that western window to the north.

I haven't used a volume builder, but when I talked to a few of them they said they'd modify or even create a new plan. I wouldn't stick to what they've got as you have a good opportunity being on a corner with the side of your house facing north.

Like ddarroch said, the first thing you need to consider is the alfresco. Going with a covered alfresco will eliminate a lot of the solar access, which is important. There are options out there for coverage that can still give you sun coming through when you want it. I undertand that in QLD you would want some guarantee of coverage given how quickly it can rain. The next thing is making sure any west and east windows are minimised and shaded well.

I would also consider paying for an energy assessor to take a look at the design in the early stage as they can help you optimise windows size/location, shade, cross breeze, insulation and orientation for your climate and block. Getting it right at the design stage is the cheapest way to get a comfortable house with low energy bills.

Thank you so much 🙏🏻

Thank you 🙏🏻

We built with Coral and have a large covered outdoor area to the north. We have no problems with light coming into the house. We built the Grange 25 with modifications. Coral were great to work with and happy to make any changes that we wanted. Have a look at my build if you like - .https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=91042

Direct light or ambient light? If you're getting direct light with an undercover outdoor area you've done really well!

We have a wrap around alfresco (north and west)
After we built, a highset was built next door. We get sun into the family room in the morning for about an hour and in the afternoon for about 2 hours.
We tweaked the plan for the block as we like lots of light.

That was good review of coral from you. I’m building Milan 27. I understand alfresco is covered but being a corner block light should still be okay. I’ll get it checked through energy accessor .

I’m building with Coral too 😃. Thank you 🙏🏻