home plan design feedback

Hi,

First time building and in the process of finalising our house plan layout.
would greatly appreciate any feedback in regards to the layout and solar passive design. Having lots of storage is also a priority.
House is facing North.

Many thanks in advance

"Facing" is a confusing term. In the past it meant the direction living areas faced (usually the backyard). Now it seems to be used interchangeably with "frontage".

So I'm assuming you have a northern frontage?

If so, there's not really anything "passive solar" going on. Northern frontages are tough to design. As the garage take much of the northern sun, robbing light & winter sunshine from your living areas. But the fact you've got a triple garage only makes it worse.

It's a good idea to minimise western windows. You certainly don't want your bedrooms facing this way. Better to have them in the south or east, garage on the west, living area on the west side of you must.

Many thanks for your input. Our backyard is facing north. Front of the house is south

I would make Ens 2 door a sliding door. Main Bath door is tight, possibly move it?

Youll have a long way to walk from the GGE to Kitchen with your groceries. Have you considered access via laundry from GGE?
I think Id reconfigure the laundry WIL and drop zone areas. Id make WIL bigger and access to WIL from GGE only for some good storage in there and make dropzone smaller. Add door to laundry from GGE.

I think I wouldnt have the scullery window, given it faces W, will make the area hot. Id probably not have the pantry door either. Consider tinting the W facing windows.

The recess in bed 3 is weird, Id make PWD bigger to get rid of the recess.

Bed 1 door is odd and blocks partially access to wir. Id make it flush with wall. And you have another odd recess in master - do you have a plan for that? If not, get rid of it.

Its a good plan with generous spaces

No worries. Haha, you were using the term like if normally use it! So the house faces a north backyard. Perfect!

However, you've still got very little "passive solar" going on. You really need to try & get some of your living areas facing north, light, & warmed by the sun in winter. Having a couple of bedrooms & the alfresco is a waste!

I suppose you need to try & get those two bedrooms down the eastern side, & some of the living areas to the north.

You could move the home theatre behind the garage, put the master bed at the front, & those 2 bedrooms on the eastern side. The alfresco could go to the NE corner, leaving room for the living room in the NW corner. Where it will receive northern light, & winter sunshine.

But I'm sure you don't want the home theatre in this location behind the garage. As the garage won't access the mudroom & pantry, with easy access to the kitchen.

Problem is there doesn't look like much room to find other, more agreeable passive solar options, as it's a large house on a fairly small block by the looks of it.

In any case, of really try to move that living room from its current location. It will be pretty dark there. I think you would want it somewhere on the northern side of the home.

So, can I ask how big your family is? Do you really need 5 bedrooms, a living room, home theatre & activity room? If you can consolidate a couple of rooms you will reduce your house size, leaving more room for outdoor areas, making it easier to get the floorplan right. Reducing the house size will also reduce building cost, maintenance costs & importantly, heating & cooling costs. It also reduces "embodied energy", a good thing for the environment.

So is one of the bedrooms a guest room, that will be rarely used. If so, instead of a dedicated room for guests, you could have a multi-purpose room. Say, an activity room, that can house occasional guests. Or the home theatre could do double duty.

Also, where are you located? Your climate will determine what design is appropriate. What is appropriate in Hobart it's not appropriate in Cairns.

If you haven't done it already, have a very good read about passive solar design here, a brilliant website.

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

Ah, while I was writing my post I couldn't see the plan. I thought there was access from the garage to the pantry/kitchen. But as you say, it's not the case.

Certainly should be the case, if the pantry is going too be located very close to the garage, it needs easy access.