5 Crucial Questions to Consider When Designing Your Home

1. Hobbies and Leisure activities. What leisure activities are important to you and those in your home? Do they take place inside the home, on the property /and what is required to support the activity?

Considering each person who lives in your home, you might have a son that loves to surf (Surfboard Storage), a daughter that lives to ride her Bike (Bike Storage) or you might have a keen pianist in the family so room for a piano might seem important. (And perhaps some additional acoustics).

2. Do you have, or anticipate in the future, an elderly family member might live with you?

We might think today, “no way would an elderly family be living with me”, but life can throw some strange curveballs and so it might be a chance to consider that in 5-10 years’ time you might have adopted another ‘person to look after’ and the needs of that person will be very different to the needs of a young family. Accessibility, Living Aids, Smaller footprint from this guest bedroom to living areas etc. etc.

3. What transitional spaces are important to you?

When planning your home, it can be easy to focus on the house and forget about that ‘future shed’ and the ‘future pool’ and how we connect this space to the home in the future, so it is important to consider that an extended deck with a covered walkway might need to be built and/planned in the design & concept phase.

4. Where are the neighbours entertaining areas? Where will my entertaining areas be / relaxation areas.

If there are established homes near your block, perhaps a weekend visit at different times during the day, to determine how your neighbours live and what activities they undertake at home. Perhaps your neighbour has a two-storey home and their views into your backyard might be of concern to you, especially if you’re planning to build a pool and entertaining area in the future. Some clever Screening/Hedging or sound barrier walls might need to be considered if the orientation is capitalising on energy efficiency / views.

5. Is there an energy efficient, resource conscious, alternative energy choice I can make whilst designing my home?

Electricity Generation is the biggest contributor to climate change in Australia, because the majority of our energy is made by burning fossil fuels like gas and coal. Energy Efficiency isn’t a new concept, in fact each state and territory in Australia has building energy efficiency ratings it needs to meet minimum requirements. The higher the star rating, the less energy needed to heat and cool the home to keep it comfortable. This is regulated through the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS)

This can be achieved simply through clever design or through adding a denser insulation or a specially glazed window, upfront these costs can add a significant cost to the build budget, but it has been argued that the more efficient a material, the homeowner will recover that money through lessened energy consumption / lower energy bills.