Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 21Feb 18, 2010 2:07 pm well the estate my house is in, seems to be all of them are at the back of the house, probably because the blocks are long and skinny! Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 22Feb 18, 2010 2:28 pm ours is off the side, simply because we have no neighbours on that side as it's a corner, and liked the privacy of being on the side, not up against the back neighbours or other side. Our house is also only 4 metres off the back fence, so no yard there really and there are no windows on the back wall of the house either, so it's a dead space out there, but we will just have a little garden shed and vegie garden. There's not much yard at the side either, only down the front of the block. (wide at the front, narrow at the back. The house we are renting is on a golf course, and they have to have alfrescos on the back as they overlook the course, plus the house takes up the width of the block, but this house has all the bedrooms at the front and living on the back. Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 23Feb 18, 2010 2:44 pm We found it hard to find houses with the alfresco and the main living area at the back of the house too. Also to find a house wider enough to fit on our block. Most of them seemed to have the minor bedrooms at the back blocking the view. Its the main reason we had to scratch Porter Davis off the list. It makes sense that they would design the houses to suit the majority of little blocks being sold today. Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 24Feb 18, 2010 5:35 pm I guess it depends on what sells!!! And what changes clients are making to the floor plans and if the architects are designing houses for lifestyles or not! Ours is at the side and we like it for a few reasons - 1. (like another bloggers) we are on a corner type block (reserve next door) so our alfresco faces the side where there are no neighbours - therefore we won't be annoying anyone with our late night parties!!! 2. Where ours is positioned we are having a bi-fold door from the formal lounge, a bi-fold from the meals area and a bi-fold window/bar from the kitchen - to us outside is an integral part of entertaining and it is positioned AWAY from the minors rooms, if we are up late then the guests will be away from the "kid's quarters"! (powder room to front so no need to go down to the kids area) 3. The look and feel of the house - I love the look and feel of Alfrescos - being enclosed they feel like a room rather than an add on to the back of a house (this is my personal opinion - don't want to offend anyone with rear alfresco s ) and I found that the design we chose has a massive standard alfresco vs all the same size houses that we saw with rear alfrescos (i say its massive - but i'm still building an outdoor kitchen next to it!) 4. And lastly I am no gardener!! I can deal with a few pots and a few palms/bamboo next to the alfresco - but looking over an entire yard of dirt, weeds and dying plants would be depressing to me!!! - but mine and my husbands jobs are extremely time hungry and they leave us with little time to do gardening and i do not have a green thumb!!! So that's my reasoning for side alfrescos!? I guess the different positions suit different lifestyles and when designing houses I guess the builders/architects take those types of things into consideration!!!??? Sleven Moved into our Atlantique MkII 36 by Carlisle Homes Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 25Feb 18, 2010 7:36 pm Quote: being enclosed they feel like a room rather than an add on to the back of a house (this is my personal opinion - don't want to offend anyone with rear alfresco s Ah, this is exactly my point - as I have said before, I want my alfresco to be an indoor extension of the garden rather than an outdoor extension of the house, if that makes sense. I dont want it to feel like a room, I want it to feel like a shaded garden extension. (yes yes, like donuts' its not actually under the roof line so not a true alfresco but you know what I mean) Quote: And lastly I am no gardener!! I can deal with a few pots and a few palms/bamboo next to the alfresco - but looking over an entire yard of dirt, weeds and dying plants would be depressing to me!!! - but mine and my husbands jobs are extremely time hungry and they leave us with little time to do gardening and i do not have a green thumb!!! Well, yes, admittedly a garden of dirt and weeds wouldnt have the same effect - but my garden isnt like that ! Like sleven, this is not meant to be offensive to others, say, those who dont like gardening or whatever - I know everyone's choices can be different. Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 26Feb 18, 2010 7:54 pm Ours is at the back, but it still feels like part of the house and I think it flows well. We did use similar tiles and the exterior roof line houses the kitchen and the Al Fresco. www.themaxbuild.blogspot.com forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=20717&start=300 www.leahspaperpassion.blogspot.com Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 27Feb 18, 2010 8:09 pm Block orientation is the big thing. Not every block can have a north-facing back yard. So house designs have to be able to cater for all orientations. Our al fresco room is at the side, which faces north. Anyway, surely it doesn't matter whether your yard is at the back or the side? As long as your house and garden take advantage of natural light, and you have the best available use of space. My back yard is 2m deep, and faces west, so not exactly ideal for entertaining.... Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 28Feb 18, 2010 8:14 pm Yes, i think that wherever the outdoor space is you will use it and it will be perfect for you. www.themaxbuild.blogspot.com forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=20717&start=300 www.leahspaperpassion.blogspot.com Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 29Feb 18, 2010 8:19 pm So a north facing alfresco/piazza/patio obviously has the advantage of allowing natural light into the house, but wouldn't it also allow the house to cook in the natural sunlight? Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 30Feb 18, 2010 8:25 pm JB82 So a north facing alfresco/piazza/patio obviously has the advantage of allowing natural light into the house, but wouldn't it also allow the house to cook in the natural sunlight? Not if you have a roof/pergola/eaves....blocks summer sun and lets in winter sun. Might depend where you live of course. Maybe in the tropics, less sun is a good thing.... Here, north facing living rooms and outdoor entertaining areas are in demand. Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 31Feb 19, 2010 8:30 am We moved a room in our house just so the area for our alfresco which we will build later is off to the side as we are putting a largish shed at the back of the house and our block has the most yard area out to the back corner as the back is 23mwide and front 16m.... we are also on a corner so it is away from the double story behind us as well! 2nd build here we come in Whittlesea! https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=92617 1st Build - Henley - Cooper in Doreen! (2009) https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=17354 Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 32Feb 19, 2010 12:28 pm It all depends on a lot of factors; block size, orientation, house layout, etc. Ours is in the back corner of the house so it's both at the back and to the side. We only have 2m to the back and 3.3m to the side so our "backyard" would be to the side really. Will suit us fine. If we had a bigger block and a different orientation, I'd definitely have a house plan with views and alfresco to the back, although my favourite plan has the house in a "C" shape which wraps around the alfresco. Maybe next build? Summit/New Gen Homes Slab - 9/4/10 PCI - 13/9/10 Handover - 22/9/10 Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 33Feb 19, 2010 1:06 pm Our alfresco will be on the side of the house. I'd originally wanted it on the back but the design we chose in the end worked better with the alfresco to the side. Also having the alfresco to the side instead of the back meant we didn't have to cut down a couple of trees which I was happy about. Our block is over 2000m and there's still about six metres or so to the side fence. Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 34Feb 19, 2010 3:37 pm Ours is at the side I think it comes from there being more room there and also it opens up the living dining area so that is not just looking out at side fence. It makes it so all opens out onto an alfresco so you can sit out and have brekky there. We have a sliding door down the back room as well where we are hoping to put a patio out the back as well. So we have two areas. Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 35Feb 19, 2010 7:09 pm Our family room and master BR is at the back of the house so our alfresco area is at the back and both the family room and master BR have sliding door access to the area. It's worked well because it is a Western exposure and cuts out the heat to the back rooms and gives us a better energy rating. Our block is narrow 12.5x 32m so it made sense. Yeah for alfrescos Handover February 2011 Happy with our home Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 36Sep 02, 2021 4:24 pm Ari We found it hard to find houses with the alfresco and the main living area at the back of the house too. Also to find a house wider enough to fit on our block. Most of them seemed to have the minor bedrooms at the back blocking the view. Its the main reason we had to scratch Porter Davis off the list. It makes sense that they would design the houses to suit the majority of little blocks being sold today. Hey mate, I am having the exact same problem. I was after a block 15.2 x 45.8m so massive backyard, alfresco out the back- no dramas. But I missed it. Now I am after a 17.3 x 38.2m block. All of the houses on volume builder websites that suit 16m blocks are RUBBISH. Cant find a single one on 30 websites. Did you find a good one? Re: Why are alfresco's always on the side of the building? 37Sep 02, 2021 8:18 pm Our original floor plan was a long skinny house with 8.5 meters wide. On the back corner was an alfresco of 3mX3m alfresco. In my opinion, thats a not so useful alfresco. We converted that alfresco into indoor space by moving the two sets of sliding doors outward to align with external walls adding 9 sq meters to our dining kitchen back area. The whole of backarea now how a slidings doors and it all faces north as the backyard. Post handover, planning to add a decking with similar wide to the house and maybe a retrabtable pergola or a trellis with decidous vine. That sucks! Hope it all works out. Good to move away from steel anyway for all your reasons, but it's also thermally poor. 16 17858 Hi All, I just wanted to close this topic out with an update. 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