When designing a building to respond efficiently to its environment, the first and most important consideration should be orientation. The following diagram is from the Your Home Design Guide, a government site that provides in-depth information about sustainable building principals and the fundamentals of great design.
“Good orientation increases the energy efficiency of a home, making it more comfortable to live in and cheaper to run.”
PRINCIPLES OF GOOD ORIENTATION

The above diagram gives a good overview of the environmental considerations that should be taken into account when designing a successful home. These considerations include;
- Protection from “high” summer sun by using shading such as pergolas or deciduous trees.
- Maximising “low” winter sun to create passive solar heating.
- Insulation from hot afternoon summer sun.
- Maximising flow-through ventilation with windows to allow for passive cooling.
- Locating thermal mass to store passive heating.
- Insulating from cooling winter winds by reducing exposure to southern elevations.
- Using water features to create evaporative cooling.
As you can see by reading the inserted links, there is a lot to consider when designing a building to suit its environment. Although these concepts may seem technical at first, they are actually basic principals. What is required is an understanding of our natural surrounding environment as well as a good knowledge of building materials and principals. Of course none of these ideas are new, but with increased technology powered by fossil fuels we’ve ignored many of these fundamental principals for years. We tend to give more consideration to street appeal and aesthetics rather than the function of the building, and by doing so I believe we’re creating impoverished buildings.
Although we can often maintain comfortable living environments in poorly deigned buildings through the use of artificial heating & cooling, we will never be able to emulate the quality of living environment afforded by a well designed home; the simple delight experienced while eating breakfast in front of an east facing window, or basking in warm winter sun on your lounge room floor, or while sharing wine with friends under the shade of a vine draped pergola in the heat of summer……
Whereas we can easily weigh-up the environmental impacts of our poorly designed homes, it may not be so easy to gage the effects poor design can also have on our lifestyle and greater happiness!
