South facing living / yard - worst orientation?

I’m building H&L and my block is north facing, with living and yard facing south. It’s a narrow block so there won’t be much sun getting into the side windows I guess because I’ll have a fence in the way and neighbours. I’m wondering if I should cancel my deposit for the land and look for a south facing block so the yard can face north. Maybe the 20k loss of deposit will pay off in the long run if I get better orientation?

Or am I worrying way too much? Does it really matter? Will i notice it at all?

It’s a double storey house so I also worry the second storey will cast a bigger shadow on the yard. The yard is only 8m long. The other worrying thing is the alfresco - so there’s two windows in the living, one is on a south facing wall, and one is on a west facing wall. The one to the west facing wall is under an alfresco, so it’ll save me from the harsh western sun, but I fear it’ll make things even darker?

Does anyone have south facing living areas / yard and how do you feel about them?

Thanks in advance

 

South facing is the worst orientation for the reasons you outline above. Having said that, you hopefully paid less for the site due to this.

Modern design can help eliminate a lot of issues e.g. strategically placed windows and skylights should mean that internal lighting shouldn’t be an issue. Double glazing means living areas can be significantly warmer than older homes despite having an inferior orientation. Also side boundaries should not be too adversely affected by neighbours/fences if the development has appropriate design guidelines.

The biggest issue you will have is the inability to have passive solar design - e.g. a north facing rear yard will allow sun in in the winter when it is low to warm the living areas.

Go have a look at new builds in the area with the same orientation to get an idea of the final result before you decide to sell or search for a different site.

 

Change the design of the house if you are happy with the block.

 

Can you post up the design? We might have suggestions to improve the design which will make it work.

Whilst it’s not the ideal orientation it’s also not the worst and $10k of tweaks versus loosing $20k deposit might be a better outcome.

 

Can’t change design

 

How does the designer expect to achieve basix?

 

I’m not sure what you mean?
I’m building with Henley. All of their designs that I can afford and will fit my block have livng areas to the back of the house. They’re a not a lot they can do to change the design so that there’s north windows in the living areas

 

Is there a second (smaller) living area facing north?

They likely designed it to suit the site in the first place (as much as possible).

 

Passive solar design isn’t just about having a living area to the North. There are other ways your design might be able to be improved

If you post it up I can give you some pointers.

 

My house design is Ashbury - by Henley

 

Ok I've had a look at it and I don't think it's that bad.
My notes

1. The theatre and master bedroom at the front of the house is on the North and will get some nice winter sun exposure
2. Whilst the alfresco will shade the doors on the west side you will have a lot of the alfresco in the sun and it won't be as useable as you like. You might want to consider flipping the house so that the alfresco is on the east side. This may also give you better interaction with the rear garden
3. if you do flip the house then I would make the window that is in the dining room just be a highlite window. This will also aid with furnishability as you'll be able to put a sideboard underneath it
4. if you don't flip the house then I would move the window to bed 2 to the front so that it's not on the afternoon sun side.

 

Yeah I’ll swap the upstairs bedroom to face north. I’m thinking for the west alfresco I could add in a screen or something maybe vine to cover the sun, I just hope the livng won’t be too dark. I guess I have just to work with what I have unfortunately

 

Honestly it won't be dark at all. There is plenty of windows to allow light in

In terms of extra design ideas I would consider
1. Increasing the size of the butlers pantry to include the WIL. There is another large linen in the laundry and one upstairs so I there is plenty of storage and a nice large butlers pantry will be more of a selling point at selling time. If so I would make half of it bench area and half of it pantry.
2. Maybe put a door to the area under the stairs for some extra storage
3. Do put doors on the wardrobes upstairs
4. Do put a door on the ensuite

 

Thanks. Yeah you have some good notes.
I am extending the alfresco and livng area - and wanting to add in a wall (drawn where the blue line is) do you think that will affect how light/dark it will be? I hope not

Thanks so much for your opinion and advice

 

Some ideas:
1) Replace the wall between the staircase and dining room with a balustrade. Then you add a skylight on top of the staircase.
2) Adding an internal void between the leisure room and the staircase may help in bringing direct winter sunlight from the skylight on (1) into the dining room
3) Add a skylight on top of the leisure room.
4) Add a highlight window facing north on bed 2