Have you seen this resource?

https://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design

This is worth a look too, and includes details of the designers and builders if you need help with that too. I've linked to the WA page.

https://sustainablehouseday.com/2025-featured-homes/#1632708203195-8f1a6f73-926b

Energy efficiency is a lot about making use of northern orientation, making the sun work for you through the seasons, but other features are also important, such as the best size and type of glazing for each aspect, external summer shade especially for the west, good insulation installed properly, and designing a right-sized house for your needs rather than a house with all the trendy 'must haves' the builder makes a bigger profit from.

I’d start with removing the west facing windows on the bedrooms. The eaves aren’t wide enough to protect from the western sun. But generally look at the guidelines and rethink.

Usually I'd agree with moving those west facing windows, for the reason given, but that looks like the street-facing side where you need to consider the external appearance. I think contemporary designs allow more creativity and flexibility with addressing that dilemma. I'm not sure what "farmstyle" means but with the large verandah on the plan I pictured something more traditional.

Yes, you are correct, there will be no free north warming winter sun getting into the living areas, in the current design. If starting from scratch, this would be a good starting point. Have the main living areas on the north facing side of the block. Then work your design back from there. Any west facing windows that are required, can be protected with external shading, be it structures or planting.

In Perth, our cooling summer morning breeze comes from the east, and from the south west/west in the afternoon. With the current design have you got doors or windows that can be opened up, and closed, to let those natural breezes flow through the home. There are lots of walls in bedroom zone areas that may stop the ability to cool the home naturally. In my home, in Perth, I can open up the north east sliding doors, and the west sliding doors and the breeze flows through the home in the morning. Then close the doors/windows during the day. In the afternoon I can open up the south west windows, and the north east sliding doors and the breeze flows through the home. In the winter, I get the wonderful winter sun into my living areas. This week we are still having 25-27 degree days, so spend the time to ensure your home has the correct orientation and internal cross breeze capabilities. Go and stand on your land with a compass and feel the sun and the breezes, which way do they come from? And where, on your plan, are the doors and windows that can be opened?

I have marked your current plan with, green are cross breeze directions, yellow is direction of northern winter sun, red is hot summer sun. As you can see, living area will not receive good winter sun, west facing living and theatre will get summer sun. Minor Bedrooms will be searching for the morning breezes. Garage is in the way of afternoon breeze, and master will be restricted because you have no windows on the south west side of home, apart from small windows in the ensuite and office. But the master could grab some morning breeze.

Hi All,

Thank you for your thoughts and feedback it's been much appreciated and as a result we're exploring engaging designers and builders who specialise in sustainable and passive homes with experience in these wider lot farmhouse style builds.

We initially explored larger typical project builders to address concerns on long term viability of builders as well as affordability, however our experience so far shows their limited passive design emphasis / expertise and preference to tweak their standard designs (hence the less than ideal floorplan posted).

The street facing side of home faces West where estate guidelines require major openings, however we do have the benefit of established trees in the front garden to provide some Western sun cover. The driveway is also fixed on the RHS of the block hence the garage location. Estate guidelines also require a minimum 20m frontage facing the street leading to a wider, shallower home design.

@macyjean, yes indeed we've been educating ourselves in passive design and find YourHome a fantastic resource. That link to WA designers and builders will be handy!

@Paul Di Stefano Design, we do have a fixed building envelope as shown (26.5m x 21.1m) with 1.5m setbacks on sides and rear. Given the challenge with capturing views and connection to front garden and established trees in particular, but also being passive, we have considered the living areas to the LHS (North) end of block but find it conflicts with optimum flow to/from sleeping areas (walking across the whole width of home) and impacts on views (faces a side fence and may truncate views to front / back yards). So the current idea is to target a design which keeps main living areas central but taps into Northern light (high clerestory windows perhaps) but we're open minded to creative solutions.

@dreamer, really good pickup on the ventilation issues with this floorplan especially for afternoon south west/west breezes. We'll be keeping this is mind when talking with a more experienced passive home designer/builder. The land is soon to be titled so we should get access to site to evaluate all the climate factors.

Has anyone had experience with experienced passive home designers / builders in Perth who are worth looking into?

the building envelope is limiting but I'd be pushing hard to the limits of it since you have more space beyond to the rear.....a "U" shaped floor plan creating and internal courtyard could potentially work by creating wings and bringing north light in from the side and creating streamlined wings that enable cross ventilation and far better natural light.....but you need to work out what your priority is.....it's one thing to design a traditional farmhouse, another to design with a more progressive passive solar approach as well as trying to design responsively to context/outlooks etc......whilstit's possible to work it all together, it typically takes a higher level of design/architectural expertise, and relative investement in design & development, compared with more standardised and building/design approaches, as well as being open to enabling the building form to naturally follow function/planning rather than being forced into a particular (traditional) aesthetic....good move pressing pause and seeking appropriate more specialised design assistance.....it will be well worth the investment for your home :)

Thanks for the feedback, Paul. We did play with the idea of unconventional shaped homes like an "L", "U" or even enclosed box square shape with internal courtyard, but got talked out of it by the project builders as being inefficient and expensive. I think that was probably biased input though.
We're actively engaging experienced sustainable designers / builders now and feel Solar Dwellings in Perth could be a great fit.

good to hear you're actively engaging an alternative option.......sounds like you were heading in the right direction with your ideas initially......hopefully you'll get things back on track for a much better and aligned outcome with some specialised and proper design guidance

All the best with it! PD :)

Ahh Project Builders. Great at keeping costs down for standard design but not best for site responsive design. Good luck

some ideas to show how your original plan can be arranged to improve passive solar design but unable to read the dimensions so room sizes have been made to keep total internal floor area below 50% of the block size

@oklouise thank you for the food for thought and sharing your drafting skills and time, it definitely looks better for flow and solar passive focus.

I'd be interested in your ideas for a design if you had freedom to redesign altogether, any shape of floorplan on the block but with similar number and size of rooms. We've played with U and L shaped before and are open minded for any inspiration for optimising solar passive design, connecting with trees to the front of block and also to pool and garden in rear.      

always best to employ a local professional to help refine your ideas although HOUZZERS can add some useful suggestions and given the choice i would have a much simpler roof and enhance the courtyard ideas but we need more information including a site plan showing the location and spread of the existing trees (NB big eucalyptus are not ideal to have near homes and it could be worthwhile to remove eucalyptus and invest in more suitable landscaping and/or external shutters) and how close are your neighbours, is the site flat, what is the maximum floor area that you can build, what are the number and ages of those who will live in the house or stay regularly and could you share some photos of the style of house you like

@oklouise, indeed while awaiting response from a local professional we are soaking up the input from helpful Houzzers like yourself!

A site plan, existing tree plan and recent photo of the frontage of block is below for info. Agreed re eucalyptus trees near the home, we can prune tree canopy nearby the building envelope.

Answers to your queries:

• There are similar sized lots to either side of our lot, with smaller lots to the rear. All are new estate lots. We have 1.5m setbacks to all boundaries but can build within the full 560sqm designated building envelope.
• The building envelope will be flat (level clean fill), slightly elevated 60cm above front street level.
• 4 usual occupants (2 kids below 7 yrs, parents in 40's), though we're aiming for a guest room + ens for occasional visitors/relatives.
• Some elevations of styles we like below (modern farmhouse/acreage style), however we're open to what suits the block, design and orientation best. For this location, we'd aim for a sympathetic style to bush / farm living so nothing too abstract.

Site Plan:

Existing Tree Plan:

Street Frontage:

Example Styles:

Thanks as always!

super rough broad-stroke concept/idea outline - design/building pushed hard to envelope and creates private yard and pool in back north east corner .....proportions of rear yard would feel less squeezed......you could still achieve the farmhouse frontage look but far better opportunity for passive solar access into spaces, cross ventilation and zoning/separation opportunity

what a great block of land...glad i asked for more information and should be an inspiration for any designer and will have to challenge myself for more ideas for you

@Paul Di Stefano Design, love it! I had similar ideas with the placement of home, pool and U shape. I believe the floorplan, zoning and internal flow will be achievable but am uncertain if it will be a manageable budget with extensive external walls. Engaging local pros and dialogue with builders will help suss that out in the near future.

Thanks for helping with visualisation, Paul.

@oklouise, we see a lot of potential with the land and are grateful to have secured it!

Intrigued to see what ideas flow. Thanks again.

my first thoughts are about basic things like the challenges of a very long narrow driveway and where to place clotheslines, water tanks and some grass for small kids so i've added a reversing bay and utility yard and wonder if a smaller pool would allow for a little more space for some lawn in the backyard but i've attempted to keep maximum northern windows and exposure to both the front bush view and rear pool area...the main house has a simple hip roof with gabled front verandah (similar to your examples) and maybe a raked ceiling in the central living areas but a basic flat roofed alfresco with translucent panels could be added after you confirm best size and how to shade the alfresco, locate pool and safety fences and add landscaping to help cool such big areas of paving...total internal floor area is around 290sqm with about 70sqm of undercover areas (with no allowance for thicker external walls) there's a separate master suite with study, 2 kids rooms, an extra bedroom-sized activity room and generous family bathroom plus extra powder room with easy access from pool, a modest guest room with private ens, separate media room, combined family, dining and kitchen with pantry plus direct entry from garage through laundry and mudroom...it should be a very comfortable house but could be options to reduce size if necessary

@oklouise, Wow! We did not expect such a thoughtful design developed, let alone turned around in a day. We love the way you've modified the Activity to be multi-functional as an extra bedroom, the much improved entry from both front porch as well as garage via laundry and mudroom and efficient Master suite with study attached overlooking the rear garden & pool.

You've prompted us to also consider cooling and balance of hardscaped exterior with shading and landscaping. We agree that our thoughts on pool size and position could be reworked to make the rear outdoor living more functional for kids. We could also work from your design to optimise use of the building envelope (perhaps push the garage closer to the front) to free up rear outdoor living space.

A really great shake up and thought provoking design. Thanks so much for your time and creative input. That's beyond what we expected and will inspire our next steps.

An update on the project - we finally secured time to meet with a sustainable designer and have a good feeling about where the project is headed. We'll take along inspiration from your work and the Houzz community and get the ideas flowing!

look forward to seeing what a local professional designer suggests and attached a simpler version of my plan that shows how the basic roof could work

and hope you don't sacrifice the comfort of a reversing area for the bigger pool...maybe the master suite could be pushed further west and/or locating the 9 x 4.5m pool plus 1m walkway close to the house would allow for about 65sqm of gardens close to the fences, allows the alfresco to be included under the hip roof and there's direct access from master to a private courtyard plus outdoor shower??

@oklouise, very helpful seeing the roof design - thanks for that. We have permission to push the reversing bay outside the build envelope into the front yard so that does free up more space for say, extra storage in the garage and playing with ideas for the Master wing of the home.

I think the re-oriented alfresco could work well allowing more garden space and the private courtyard and outdoor shower are interesting ideas! We could go for a smaller pool as well, say 8mx4m.

What are your thoughts re thermal performance on this design?

High windows above the flat roofed alfresco seem key for solar gain into the living spaces.

Thanks for the stimulating ideas!    

check the MyHome.gov website for ideas about local orientation and thermal performance (including suitable building materials) and i've also found a better understanding of Basix helps explain the relationship between window size, shading and orientation and your designer should be able to create some 3D images and a walkthrough to show how the sun will enter the house at different times of day for any day of the year.... most people agree that northern windows are the ideal but there's always a compromise between passive solar heating/cooling, shading strong sunlight and blocking views so eg i would keep windows to suit views from the family and media room and add external sunscreening like adjustable vertical shadecloth blinds around the outside of the verandah to block too much sun after you experience living in the house through all seasons and, being close to bushland there may be a requirement for fire shutters that can also be great for screening sun for any room ..but, rather than attempting windows above a flat roofed alfresco (that would need a very different roof style than the examples you provided) consider ventilating skylights in the kitchen and dining room for a much easier, cheaper and more effective method to add more light and ventilation....i understand that your local climate is mostly hot and dry so keeping the house cool will be a priority and an east facing alfresco would be heated by direct morning sun but shaded from midday when you're more likely to use the alfresco but adjustable blinds could also help screen sun to avoid overheating alfresco floor.... i like lots of doors to separate different parts of the house to zone AC (and noise) and what is ideal for a family with small kids changes as kids grow older but i think a floorplan like this should be a very comfortable family home but so many details to think about

Hi All, it's been an interesting few months since kicking off work with our designer. We've worked to shrink the size of home and strike a balance between indoor and outdoor spaces, functionality, sustainability / solar passive goals and practicality.

We've merged the 4th bedrm into a Guest/Multipurpose room, which could become a theatre/second living space in future. Have also added external space for extra parking / camper trailer, Southern garden and private Master courtyard.

Attached is our latest floorplan for interest and we welcome your thoughts on potential issues, improvements and suggestions.

In particular, we feel there could be improvements to the kitchen layout and entry areas.

Thanks Houzzers!

Are there two dishwashers? One in pantry and one under sink?

@bigreader the one by the pantry is a wall oven unit. Sorry, just realised the images and text are quite blurry and will update!

Agree move ensuite. Also widen door to dining from entry hall and add sliding not swing door. For ease of travel particularly with furniture etc. say 1200-1500 wide. Be generous it is entry to house

Pic

my suggestions include modifying the overall floor area of indoors in order to improve outdoor areas including moving the pool away from the house to allow for a big north facing lawned area for kids that will also help cool the house in hot weather, wider setbacks for more comfortable access all round for gardening, wider eastern side path with outdoor shower and back door entry for powder room that is within easy access for the whole house indoors and out, wide reversing bays and off street parking areas, space for an optional carport or extra drive through garage (nb consider gravel for driveway and parking areas to minimise impervious ground cover and use a colour to reduce glare) there's a generous southern back yard with space for landscaping, drying area, garden sheds, water tanks, bins, AC and hws etc and i think solar access to kitchen can be improved with skylight in the kitchen and pantry and/or translucent roof panels for the afresco and external window shutters can control western sun to master suite but western windows would have great views to your bushland and new master ensuite has improved views to the courtyard with access to the pool.....

total floor area is 286sqm including 213 living area plus 38sqm for garage, 23sqm for alfresco and 12sqm for the three separate porches and the house has a basic symmetrical hip roof with mimimum hips and valleys