Yes I believe that there are negatives to the oft recommended north facing aspect for living areas.
Much of the insulation benefit comes from how you select trees in your property. I find that the northern sun in my living area to be a real nuisance, to the point that I have to pull the blinds down if I want to read. The glare of winter sun can be quite unpleasant. But we do have a lot of big windows surrounding our home that aren't double glazed. The cost would be prohibitive to renew.
As climate change advances, and I am a firm believer in this, the south side will become the preferred space, especially in
summer for living areas.
As long as the western aspect has its walls shaded from trees, preferably evergreens, with minimal windows, I really don't understand any more the push for living areas in the northern spaces. This is now old-fashioned advice, and I have been known to give it myself.
So we really need to start rethinking much of what was once accepted practice.

Yes I agree with Timandra.

North facing living rooms have a lot of negatives (and an equal number of positives). The theory of northern sun warming the house works well in practice but for a living area its not the be all, other rooms are also nice to be warmed. Is this a good thing in tropical areas? I'd say not but in the cooler areas of Australia such as Tasmania this would be the preference. To me this theory (amongst other theories) are more just 'fad buzz words' than anything else, almost like a box ticking exercise for design.

I've found many north facing living areas being overly lit and stuffy from heat even with decent shading so much so that I want to pull the blinds closed. This does vary from dwelling to dwelling, site to site.....

When designing everything needs consideration not just 'North facing living areas'. Many sites have their own specific micro climates even within the same street or suburb, maybe there is major shading to the North with superb views to the South, maybe privacy is an issue such as a busy highway..... etc.....

An experienced good designer be it an Architect, Building Designer or Draftsman should know how to design around these issues as well as the legislation again specific to your site. Everything must be considered!!

This is an interesting topic. I don't think north facing is the be all end all, there are lots of other factors to consider too. In saying that I love our north facing living areas all year round, my husband prefers the lounge on the south.

We live in a terrace and so no windows to either side. Our solution was a sliding sunroof ..it gave us our North light..

you could always have voids..or roof windows etc ..so many great products out there that I don't think it matters as much now .

ours was built by this mob (used to be called kennovations)

http://www.tilt-industrialdesign.com/portfolio-cat/operable-solutions/

in our regularly cold climate i need the rooms used most to face north so i can utilise the free heat and light during the day and, by shutting the curtains etc save the stored heat to supplement heating at night. A simple eave will keep hot summer sun out of north facing rooms but nothing will keep sun out of east and west facing windows except a solid wall or external blinds etc..Almost every house has some rooms facing north but if your perfect house has cold miserable dingy daily living areas it's always possible to make improvements but it's usually easier and cheaper if your mostly used rooms face north

You make a good point about the width of the eave to the north. In order to minimise the aggravating effects of winter sun glare, the eaves need to be quite wide as the sun is low in the sky. This is then also of benefit during summer.

As climate effects worsen, we are going to benefit from having living areas in different light zones within the home.

The confusion about north and south facing houses has arisen due to the following life-style change: It used to be that people had their living-entertaining areas at the front of the house, and the kitchen, bedrooms etc towards the back. In that context, it made sense to have a "north facing house", ie on the south side of an east-west street. In the mean-time however, our lifestyle and building preferences have changed to having the garage and master bedroom at the front, with the main living, family and entertaining area and kitchen all towards the back, in line with the shift in family living and entertaining facing to the back garden. Now this means that to get the warmth and sunlight into the back of the property you need to have a "south facing house", ie on the north side of an east-west street. All the other comments above about having eaves on the north roof, block-out window treatments on the east and especially west rooms also apply of course, but I hope the above explains how the confusion set in.

I'm sure there's plenty of confusion about the why's and wherefore's of house orientation. The reality, as I have recently discovered, is that if want to live in an area that is older, developed, close to facilities, you take whatever orientation the block actually happens to be and do the best you can with it.

Unless you're out in the country, or buying something in a new estate, you may not get a choice of orientation: we certainly didn't. And yes, our garage does have the best aspect - because there was nowhere else to put it - it had to face the street - but we live walking distance to shops (think of the petrol saved on not having to get into the car), we've got clerestory windows on the west side so no afternoon sun issues, and we're assembling a collection of sails for the south side, where the deck is, to provide shade from the late afternoon sun. Oh, and skylights for the kitchen.

No, not ideal. But the location is, and the designers have worked around the constraints of orientation. And that's reality for a lot of us.

jmm..it is the reality. When we bought our houses we never thought about it. About which way it was facing. Position was always our first priority.

It was when we renovated our apartment that was when it came into play. We had to get light into a dark building.

Vy - we actually did think about it, because orientation had been a big thing in our previous house. But we couldn't pass up the chance for a house so close in to everything we needed, even if the orientation wasn't the best. It was a conscious decision for us, and one we haven't regretted.

I guess I just get a bit annoyed by all the articles talking about ideal orientation/design/whatever, without realizing that people need things beyond he perimeters of their garden, and sometimes, something's gotta give.

North facing living is great as long as you do it properly and make sure u have eaves...in so many modern builds people forgo eaves....eaves aside from making a house look complete (IMHO) play a significant role in keeping out the hot summer sun, while allowing the north winter sun in.