Saturday, 1 October 2011

Design Your Home For Country Living

By Sandy Konig


When building your acreage or country home, often there are just too many plans to choose from, certainly at the design stage of the project. This will probably be the first of many challenges that you're likely to face when it comes to building your dream home in the country or on acreage and large land plots.

Acreage home design that takes in the outlook. You want to make the most of the view, but your block (like so many acreage blocks in southeast Queensland) might offer fantastic views in ALL directions. Do you build your home to overlook the tall gums to the West or the rainforest to the North? Or go with a house design by a Brisbane builder that overlooks the valley to the South or the ocean view to the East?

Essential to your planning is being practical. Practical planning, in which you prioritise all the best elements of your land, will help you and your builders create a home that takes maximum advantage of the benefits your block of land has to offer. When your best view is to the West or the South, but the ideal position for your outdoor living area is on the Northeast, another house design challenge arises. In order to have the best of both worlds, you must take a practical approach to your home design.

Consider the elements when designing your home. This means there is plenty to consider. Design for acreage living needs to be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. For example, where will the design allow for the placement of solar power panels? And how will the design accommodate effective water collection?

A good architect will focus on your outdoor living area in Australia, and in many other countries, and the rest of your home will be designed around that. In keeping with many cultures that have a love of outdoor living and a love of entertaining, the main focus of your country or acreage house design should be creating an outdoor living area that works for you in all seasons.

A country or acreage home should make the most of all the surrounding views. Indoors it should also incorporate high ceilings and plenty of natural light.

With the right approach you can take in all the best views and have an outdoor area and spacious home that compliments the many great features of your land. A well thought out design that captures summer breezes might mean that you rarely need to air condition your acreage home. However, when the driving rain comes in from the south you'll be glad of a house design that gives you option to control unwelcome wind and weather.




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