what are the dimensions of your block, do you have any good or bad views. what direction is north, what do you love and hate about the plan?

The block is large - 2000m2 - but is also sloping, with a flat house pad of around 900m2. It is elevated with views to the south and (the best views are towards) west. The entry/bed 2 and 3 face north (not ideal, I know), but the living areas are positioned to best capture the views. The 'backyard' will be outside the kitchen so I can watch the kids play in the yard whilst I'm working inside.

Thank you so much for this!

Hi RH, I have just sketched an idea for you to consider, no fine details as yet, it's a big house with a lovely view out from the living kitchen cheers

Thanks for this :) This does address the distance between bed 4 and the bathroom, and cuts down on the amount of hallway. Cheers

That's exactly what I was tying to show, plus the media room between the kitchen and the double garage perfect for entertaining kids and adults with a movie night etc. Sorry it's not detailed as yet. The study could be opened up with sliding doors coming together and actually meeting at the corner which would mean it could be opened to Living/dining/kitchen, great for keeping an eye on kids use of computers.

or it could be solely used by parents and opening into the passage way near the master cheers

initial reaction is to suggest that with such a generous building pad in a hot climate it would be great to spread the house "apart" and create shady courtyard gardens and breezways for outdoor living areas, more of the house could enjoy the views and to avoid the look of a town house on your gorgeous big block..does anything like this appeal?... what are the ages of everyone living in the house, do you have future plans for a swiming pool and do you need to cater for regular overnight visitors or any special interests that need extra space?

Thanks siriuskey. I like the idea of opening up the study.

oklouise, we plan to build a fairly big shed on the block; no pool, but we want as much flat space as possible for the kids to play outside. The kids are young (4 and 2) so this will get plenty of use. There is an awkward and quite steep slope that takes up much of the block, so we're trying to make the most of the flat pad. We are also planning to put in some retaining walls to eke as much flat space as we can out of the block. As always, our grand plans will be restricted by our budget!

Hi. I'm still scrutinising the plan, but first thing that hits me is the proximity of study (w/o door?) to kitchen, which suggests kitchen noise may interfere with studying. Unless you will be cooking and need to monitor younger children doing homework? Also, do the adults ever need to work from home and may need either another study or one that can be closed off from kitchen?

It seems the main bathroom, while strategically placed for the bedrooms, is a ways from the main living and alfresco spaces. Perhaps a powder room nearer to those spaces could be carved out somewhere?

Siriuskey, I like how you have rearranged media room for enclosed study and a bedroom, freeing up the space that was originally taken by hallways. Having media room by kitchen is good arrangement. Also, having it further away from bedrooms is ideal.

RH! Where do you envisage the shed being located? Terracing the sloped area with grass areas and garden beds would be good way to utilise that area. Is that where you plan to put retaining walls? That could be done in stages as budget allows. I've seen some well-planned terrace gardens that are also fun for kids to play in (hide n seek, lawn bowls, horseshoes, etc) as they get older.

Hi annb1997, good point about distance of bathroom from living areas. Another powder room would help.
No door between study and kitchen was to keep an eye on kids...but could put one on and just leave it open while they're younger - problem mitigated if we take on siriuskey's ideas. Certainly something to consider.
The shed will actually go behind the garage (at the front of the block). Not too happy about this, but hoping the retaining will mean it doesn't overlap the house too much. (Don't think I've explained this very well. Hope you get what I mean!)
Terracing the sloped section is definitely part of our distant-future plans.
Thank you so much for your thoughts :)

unable to read all your measurements i've based this plan on a 17m x 17m square plus 6m x 6m garage and my suggestions include 3 bedrooms grouped with the family bathroom, master bedroom with access to the deck and ensuite with a view, open plan kitchen living and dining areas open to the deck and views in both directions, separate media room with windows, laundry with backyard access and powder room and a separate small study...

Wow! This is really impressive. Overall this is smaller in m2, but the spaces seem more generous. This really has given me a lot to think about. Thank you so much for these ideas!

attempting to reduce waste and add some extra detail this version is 16m x 16m with the symmetrical roof plus a little extra space to create a front porch and more generous garage while waiting for the big shed and the total floor area is just under 299 sq m (with single external walls)...i 've aimed for direct pathways to emphasise the views and create more cross ventilation through all the spaces and the apex of the roof is directly over the centre of the dining area and would be spectacular with raked ceilings and ventilating skylights...there are many alternatives but attempting to maintain the symmetrical roof is challenging but it does have a great tropical feel with the big living areas open to the alfresco but happy to attempt any modification

here's a split version of the plan to make it easier to see

RH, my current home which is 2 years old, was designed with a large garage partially obscuring house front for road view. This was due to us having to build within a smallish building envelope in bushfire zone. We then couldn't fit a shed near house within easy walk for us to get gardening tools, tractor, etc because there was no room left in the envelope. So, we placed it at the front of the block and it is visible from road. We were disappointed initially - who wants a shed at front of their block?! But now the scrappy trees are bit bigger and it is not quite so noticeable, plus we just decided not to sweat it. Sometimes you just have to make do.

well said annb1997 and, in this example, a well planned shed at the front is an opportunity to create a more private front yard and can be so much better at the front than at the back or sides obscuring the views

annb1997, thanks for putting this in perspective. It really is the most logical place to put the shed. Cheers :)

oklouise, I'm blown away that you are so willing to share your time and expertise so generously. Thank you so much for your ideas. We have stipulated that we want raked ceilings in the living/dining area, and love the skylight suggestion. There are some big decisions for me to make! :)

(keep thinking about your house as it's a rare opportunity to think about planning for hot climates) what's the purpose for the future big shed? if the shed was planned to eventually be used for the cars then could the existing garage be planned to take on the future purpose of the big shed?? if so, the big shed can be placed in front of the garage connected by covered walkways and need less drive way?? if the house and shed were planned with the same symmetrical roof profile and some or all of the cladding made out of similar materials to the house, creating a look of separate pavillions with breezeways and tropical courtyard from the front??

Hmmm, that is very interesting thinking and good idea. A shed doesn't have to LOOK like an ordinary shed, given the right materials (cladding, roof) & design.

The big shed is for a boat and car restoration project, so will need to use use garage to park cars. Great point, though, about shed not needing to look like a shed. Will think carefully about materials we use.

Firstly, I'd say have a good read of this government website, if you haven't already.

http://yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/design-climate

Designing you house for cooling should be a top priority. You'll have a much more comfortable home, & lower bills, if you get the design right.

This means locating & utilizing cooling breezes (cross ventilation), shading all windows from hot sunlight, & building in appropriate (low thermal mass) materials.

There are two approaches I can think of for designing for cooling breezes in your climate.

One, separate pavilions, as suggested by oklouise. This is a great idea, but it sounds like your building envelope won't accommodate it.

Two, building a long, narrow, rectangular house. A narrow house will promote, cross ventilation. That is, cooling breezes flowing through your home. It's best to keep the home only two rooms deep, to promote movement of breezes through the home. Usually the house will have its longer faces facing north & south, where the sun can be protected by eaves. While having shorter west & east facing walls, which are difficult to protect from the sun.

Unfortunately, your design is very square. This will greatly inhibit breezes flowing through your home. Also bed 4 faces West, so will likely receive lots of afternoon sunshine, making it very hot in the evenings. The suggestion to move it to the interior of the build may not be allowed, as building codes may stipulate that habitable rooms have access to natural light, & ventilation. This may be possible with a skylight, though I wouldn't recommend it, particularly in your climate. Personally, it's want all bedrooms to have windows, just not facing west.

As for shading the build from the sun. It's difficult to shade eastern & western windows, so these should usually be kept to a minimum (some may be required for cross ventilation). Any east & west windows should be shaded by very deep eaves, verandas, or maybe even trees. For most of us, we have to think about protecting our northern windows from summer sun, with appropriate length eaves (which will admit winter sunlight). But if you are far enough north, summer summer sunlight will actually be in the southern portion of the sky. In this case southern eave length is important too.

As for the final point. Choose appropriate building materials. High thermal mass materials should not be used in tropical climates. As these materials store a lot of heat, & take a long time to cool down. This is particularly bad at night, where the house takes a very long time to cool down, making it unbearably hot when you are trying to sleep. Brick & concrete are high thermal mass materials, which should definitely be avoided in tropical climates.

You said you have a large block. Though it's difficult, so has a substantially smaller building envelope. How about posting a site plan, which shows what building envelope is possible. Because, although a pavillion home may not be possible, it would be nice to build a rectangular home, orientated correctly. Best of luck in your planning & thing journey.

PS. I now see you never said you were in tropical Queensland, only North Queensland. Where are you located? If you are not in a tropical areas, you have have different requirements. For example, if you are a long way inland you may actually want substantial amounts of internal thermal mass. This will use low nighttime temperatures to keep the house cooler in the daytime, so should only be used in the interior of the north, as nighttime temperatures are much lower than daytime temperatures there.

the Govt "Your Home" guide book and web site also advises how to make the best of "unsuitable" floorplans and gives case studies of improvements made to make the best of passive solar design (even if the house faces the "wrong" direction towards best views)....With family living in Tropical and North Queensland and Brisbane i have to advise that these places also have periods of cold and there'll need to be compromises to create the best environment to suit the way you want to live now and into the future all year round ...A common feature of old homes in the tropics is external shutters and your alfresco and southern deck could easily include sliding louvre screens to shade the worst of the hot sun without spoiling the view

I've just played around with a plan

4 bedrooms

2 bathrooms

Powder room

Kitchen/Family

Living/Media off Kitchen

attached 3 car garage/shed for working on the Car.

Another 2/3 car garage/shed attached via a breeze way to the left front.

As mentioned breeze ways/ shutters/ louver windows and ceiling fans all help to keep the house comfortable, it doesn't however change the humidity.

Having lived in New Guinea and the Solomon islands where it's hot and humid all of the time except for the highlands of NG. these items were what made the conditions bearable.

excellent plan drawing congratulations!

^^ of course OKLouise. But it's a new build, & we haven't seen a site plan. So we don't even know if compromises need to be made. If it's possible, an appropriate passive designed home will be much more comfortable to live in. Also, as we don't really know the location it's difficult to even advise what would be a suitable passive design. Tropical NQLD will have very different requirements to a home in inland north Queensland. Houses north of the tropic of capricorn will have different shade requirements to those south of the tropic of capricorn. I know you know these things, but most people don't, so I just advise people to look into these things, as it can make a huge difference to the comfort of a home.

RH, good plan to have that conditioned media room. So you can escape there when conditions become too extreme for just fans. It's a good idea to up the levels of bulk insulation for your media room, so it remains cool when the AC is being used. But other rooms should have much lower levels of bulk insulation (if any), as it will trap heat inside, limiting night time purging, when you open up the house at night to cool it off. In your climate it's better to use multiple layers of reflective insulation, which will reflect radiant heat from the sun, but not inhibit night time purging. Of course this is just general advise for your climate zone, your local conditions may be somewhat different, especially as you're in an elevated site. So you'd know best.

Also, if you are interested in how to use cooling breezes, it's a good idea to look at the Bureau of Meteorology site. There's lots of information here on wind directions & strengths through the seasons. Again, your local conditions may vary somewhat from the BOM site used (MACKAY M.O.), so if you're a local you may have a better idea.

The BOM (most commonly) records wind data for its sites at both 9am & 3pm. The data is presented as a wind rose. A description of wind roses, & how to use them, can be found here,

http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/wind/wind_rose.shtml

The 9am wind rose is shown here,

http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/cgi_bin_scripts/windrose_selector.cgi?period=Annual&type=9&location=33119

The most common wind at 9am appears to be from the SSE, & of moderate strength.

The 3pm wind rose can be found here,

http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/cgi_bin_scripts/windrose_selector.cgi?period=Annual&type=3&location=33119

The wind is a now SE to ESE, of moderate strength.

Unfortunately, these are yearly wind roses, so won't show seasonal variations. If you'd like to investigate seasonal differences, monthly wind roses, for both 9am & 3pm, can be found in pdf format on the following BOM page,

http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/averages/tables/cw_033119.shtml

BOM is my husband and sons go to. Just wanted to add some photos for possible inspiration for your new build, love the idea of the gallery/breezeway cheers

Thanks for your BOM suggestion, ddarroch. Will check it out.

I appreciate those pics, suriuskey. Some great inspiration there.

Yeah, great pics siriuskey. Love the breezeway on the first plan, separating the living areas from the bedrooms.

dd the breeze way helps cool and looks good at the same time along with separation.

Yep, cross-ventilation is what it's all about in the tropics