Cover your cement path/s with more decking, even bring the decking out from the wall (so not to cover your vents) say 6 - 10 inches, then you could put down some little pots or planters of heat tolerant plants, which could form a little narrow border, between your new decked paths and your house and soften the brick, (then if you lose any plants it would be easy to replace them) Also, take the decking down far enough down the side, as to meet your existing decking, then remove some of your strung wire balastrading and enter your existing decked patio from your new decking/pathway, this will create a much better flow. Also, if you choose, you could put up a pathway wide pergola, over your new decked pathways, along the side of the house, even off the side of your house, and you could then grow and train creepers over it, this would cool the whole side of your house and make it more inviting to visit! I can see it already. Good luck.

Have a look at the permeable paving products. The stones look good too, can be a bit difficult to keep them in place though as they can spread around.

Thank you for all the ideas. Sometimes you think about something so much you can't see solutions. Like the ideas of umbrellas or awnings. We have 80 mm of the timber beam available to put an awning on. I think they're wider than that.☹️☹️ (There is a bolt in the beam that protrudes 2cm, it's not easily seen in photo as it is painted cream). An awning would need to sit underneath this bolt. The panels are plastic not glass and their track would need to be clear for when we open the pergola up, which we do during summer on long hot spells. We did plant callistemons about 3 -4 m away but they have not grown according to plan...lol I'm thinking the most achievable solution is a cantilevered umbrella. I think we'd need to concrete the base into the ground and remove the pole during winter. The brick area is a play area - netball etc. Any pros or cons to this idea?

I wonder how much time you might have to spend cleaning the roof behind the parapet, perhaps the rain will take care of that, leaves?. If you were going to use these spaces as terrace you would need to adjust the height of the parapet or add a railing, if not the height of the parapet could be reduced