There a few problems I can see without knowing the brief or budget given to the designer.

Garage size is ok, but width is a bit narrow, make it 6000 mm minimum.

Ensuite is large but a bit of a clunky layout. WIR bit small, you'll find out it is too small, even for me who has not many clothes....

WIP is a bit of a fad, do you really need one so big? Make it smaller and make WIR bigger perhaps? Fridge location is quite popular.... many people are putting them across from island.... I don't really know why, I don't see this location as ideal. Personal opinion perhaps.

Look at door locations in office and 'store'. These current locations have made both rooms less usable, clunky to furnish. Door and window locations are way more critical than room sizes.....

Bathroom, WC and Laundry. Pokey spaces for such a large house. I'm presuming you have a couple kids, you'll need more space for laundry and bathroom as they get older.

The house will struggle to be 'solar passive' in the full sense if that what you're aiming for.

Good to have a house with decent insulation and minimal draughts but ventilation is super important too. More so if its well insulated, you need to be able to exhaust hot humid air in summer for example to reduce reliance on air conditioning.

The design is quite 'project home' looking rather than a custom design. I'd almost suggest finding a comparable design from a volume builder. Potentially saving money for construction.

Even a quick ballpark construction cost for the house came in at just under $550k. Add landscaping, driveway, fences and gates, pool, etc......

is this a variation of an original design or a new custom house plan as we have to be aware of copywright... i have some suggestions but can't read the dimensions ...could you repost the plan in two sections so i can read the writing or what is the width and length of the whole house and the maximum sq m of the floorplan? and the best way to check the floorplan is to add furniture but we need the clear measurements to use the proper size furniture...do you plan to have clients come through the front door or have a separate entry...what size space and equipment do you need for your workroom?

Hi Aprirana, could you supply room measurements or a readable floorplan and the size of your block with aspect

Hi Siriuskey,

Let me know if the images help.

The living areas face north. The master bedroom, garage is east, the laundry west and the kids bedrooms are south.

Thanks for responding.

Here is a link to realistic rendered images of the office, media and the living areas.

https://www.houzz.com.au/ideabooks/121239485/list/new-home-build

Heres an idea of what you'll see, this is the office:

some suggestions for the bathrooms and laundry and a bigger kitchen with a sink and dw on the island or near the pass through window would be much more practical than a big pantry and the garage needs to be wider to be able to get in and and around open car doors and suggest that the alfresco floor space needs to continued to the fence for enough space for an outside eating area with shading and you could to decorate your gallery hallway with still photos for clients to admire

my pleasure...i've added the sink and dw to the pantry with the fridge closer to the window servery and added a small sink in the island for a glass of water or to fill a kettle or saucepan and added a stacked mw and wo with small double doors into the pantry making the kitchen/pantry feel more spacious and make clearing dishes easier while still allowing quick conceal of any mess, rearranged the ens toilet: a frosted glass door and/or a ventilating skylight would also help and, if you can advise the legal set back for the front of the house and the garage, i'll attempt to make suitable alterations but you may notice that i've simplified the shape of the building to keep the roof more economical and haven't shown the front porch (which is not always included in the overall sq m or the legal setback) but hopefully the change in the external access for the laundry will allow the house to be located further back from the front but keeping within the 240sqm forces some compromises

oklouise's plan is along the lines of what I'd be doing to improve your current plan.

I would have bedrooms at 3000 minimum rather than 2700. Taking 300-450 off living isn't too bad. I'd still push for a similar sized living area though. Perhaps move alfresco to western end and rotate and move pool to the north.

It depends on where the breezes come from to where you place windows for cross ventilation however casement (side hinged) (and louvres) work very well. Typical old style Queenslander homes usually work well. Shading and landscaping important. Suitably located skylights are well worth the money for ventilation.

Here are the setbacks for the land and an image of the land itself. As you will see, not much land, but parks are close by and well it was in our budget. You are a legend Oklouise, thanks a lot for your help and MB Design, thanks for sharing your knowledge. The wind blows mostly from NE. Would you have advice on window placement and sizes to help? Ive never heard of skylights to help with venting? Where would be the most ideal places to put them?

Ive just asked my builder to hold off on developments which they are not happy with but I feel pretty blessed by your guys support. The one thing that annoys me with this builder is that there is no constructive feedback or help to make things better. They just want it done and out the door. I suppose thats the price you pay when you cant afford to get people who can make the best house for the environment. Thank you so much guys!

Skylights are openable. Some can be motorised. I usually specify Velux.

Once opened they allow air to vent to the outside. Work very well with the windows open as well as this can create a 'thermal chimney' effect. Not as efficient as opened clerestory windows perhaps but yes they are great for ventilation and natural light. Can be ordered with a blind as well.

If breezes are NE then use casements that open toward where the breeze is coming from. They capture the breeze and funnel it inside. Just be wary of not capturing the warm summer breeze, in my area this is from West/North West. We get a cooling breeze from South/South East in summer.

If the breeze is a bit slack from other directions then use louvres. Could use these in the kids bedrooms. Windows from around floor level can work better than the usual placement of windows. I have used 2 sets of 600 wide x 1800 high louvres in a couple houses and the breeze in summer is amazing. Around 90% opening with louvres, 40% with the standard but popular awning windows....

Local knowledge from the designer is key as they know the climates, wind directions, etc..

based on these set backs it seems that omitting the skimpy alfresco, in favour of a simple shade cloth covered pergola to be added later over the whole paved outdoor area and pool, would keep the overall size below 240sqm and allow more generous indoor rooms and outdoor areas

keep in mind that there needs to be space allowed for proper pool fencing and the pool in this plan is only 2.5m x 5m

Hallways are overrated.

I'm late to the party. But thought I'd offer a some advice which may or may not be helpful.

Be aware, that along with getting the orientation right, for a house to be passive solar, the sun must actually get inside the house in winter. Your intial design has a north facing alfresco (which I usually hate). This will shade the northern windows of the family room in winter, eliminating any warmth these windows would have created. Unless you have clerestory windows above the alfresco/family room (unlikely from your intial description), you'll be missing a trick.

oklouise's plan will perform much better, as it has appropriate length northern eaves, so northern winter sun will stream in the home, warming it.

Skillion clear story roof & load roof with solar (to north)
This sketch is to demonstrate what can be achieved when removing hallways.
Larger living areas and larger bedrooms.
Also by adding an entry on the northern elevation you can treat the existing entry as a room (home office)

If you are trying to create a multiuse bathroom you would be better setting that up as a commercial bathroom with shower and toilet stalls, otherwise you will just be increasing the amount of framing/wall sheeting/tiles/waterproofing.

Hi Api, Totally agree with Oklouise 3 way bathroom, we have one in our 80's architect designed house, ours has the shower, WC and then the vanity with a bath in the same space, works beautifully, good luck with the new house, lets hope your builder decides to communicate with you going forward, important for getting and understanding what you want.

Maybe my family is a lot more comfortable than others in a bathroom setting so I see it as wasteful. However, I do see the benefit for example in terms of using this for the defence housing Australia investment market.

compartmented bathrooms are also super convenient for crowds of visitors and family members of all ages and both sexes..

I'm sorry Alisa D, I have never seen the benefit of brushing my teeth 900mm away from a recently used toilet. I agree with separate spaces in the bathroom, especially having a door on the toilet.

Sometimes I brush my teeth when I’m on the toilet.

My sister has the multipurpose bathroom.
It was good when we were all staying with her. It also saves on going over the allowance of council fixtures within one application. Her ensuite, laundry and bathroom are all located in the same area as well. So it’s not bad on the water pressure and you don’t have to wait for the shower to heat up either because the HWS doesn’t have to feed bathrooms at opposite ends of the house.

If you are going with a volume builder but using your own design the costs are likely to blow out as their pricing and structure is based around not deviating from their design set. I am a broking executive with Builder Brokers and can help you get multiple quotes to help save time and money if you need a hand- we have over 500 builders on our panel I can utilise to assist you

I'm going to thro a wobbly into this mix: Have you thought about going two storey so there is some outside space for boys to play? Looking at your site plan play is either in the pool or the street!

Master bedroom, with all the robe you want upstairs and a kids free zone!

Or boys rooms above as long has they do not own hob nail boots!

Then do not use ALL the extra space on ground for your film works!

Seriously this would give you some breathing space and some real outdoor living area to enjoy which you can do in Ipswich climate.

Four beds separate bath rooms and stairs above with a laundry chute.

Down stairs a real laundry (proportional to a five bed house) A powder room with shower for after pool. Your study of a size worthwhile and theatre room for family second sitting room as well as clients.

The master can then have better sized robe, all the bits you want in ensuite including separate loo (lovely idea) but please on outside wall with window.

Personally, I'm not one for two storey but in this tight site I think it would be much better.

Good Luck,

Margot

recent updates to the Building Regulations have brought in increased requirements for minimum garden areas in relation to allotment size. The purpose of the update is to further limit development with excessive building footprints, so bloated building (over a certain footprint/allotment ratio) will be (fortunately) more difficult to achieve in future......

So like in this one potentially we may be seeing a necessity to go double storey format to achieve compliance for a certain size of home on a certain size allotment to get around this particular reg.......

Hi Ipo Api, i noticed that you wanted a solar passive design? if so are you working with someone who can model the plans and give you some options regarding best outcomes/costs? The two storey option above from Margot is a good idea

cheers

Brenton

Agree with others about reducing your building footprint. If your block is 15x28m, then that is 420sqm. Where I live, the surburbs of Perth. The ratio must be 50%. Therefore, in your block, allowance for building would be only 210sqm. This ruling has been around since this land was developed in the 1950's. This ratio varies in the newer suburb developments. But, parks have been included in developments. But the majority of suburbs are the 50% land/building ratio.