Comfortable living is your choice 

Put your assets to work
You bought a new building block. Great!  Does it have some desirable features?   Views across the park, a babbling stream or rock outcrop in the corner, an ornamental tree perhaps? Great assets! You’ll incorporate them into your new home plans of course!

Does it receive warm winter sun?  And cool summer breezes?   Great!  More natural assets you've just paid for.  No one can take those assets away, so naturally you’ll consider them carefully during the design phase so you'll have wonderful free benefits from the climate.  Naturally you'll insist on summer shade and make sure winter sun comes flooding in through large windows or the patio doors of family living spaces.  After all those rather elementary precautions will give your family the best result in the most economical manner.  

Simply put, the secret to   living comfortably and economically is to turn nature's assets to your own advantage.   Since family satisfaction is the goal of every new housebuyer, natural comfort is logical and sensible.  Just make your building plans fit your family and their needs.  Ensure you use the natural assets you've paid for to the best advantage, as any competent accountant would advise.

If it's that simple you ask, why doesn't everyone build houses that are naturally comfortable ?    Simple; more than 80% of new homes in Australia are designed to fit commonly found building blocks, irrespective of which way building blocks face in curving streets and cul-de-sacs.  And you cannot expect the sun to shine in through large living room windows if they face south can you?   Of course you can if you live in the Northern Hemisphere.  So builders argue that since they cannot predict which way a building will face, they needn't bother trying to secure natural comfort benefits the first place.  Not surprisingly, houses that are less than comfortable are the norm, and most people miss out on natural comfort.  Then they must pay for years to come, all to fix a problem that could have been avoided by sensible design in the first place.

Custom design
And that is why we design comfortable house plans to suit your circumstances. Services range from concept design sketches, right through to architectural building supervision. 

The advent of CAD software and linked production management is changing the way we work.  Often a concept sketch will ensure thermal performance.  Minor details and the selection of a bathroom tap for example will not alter the thermal characteristics.  Your sketch can be passed on to your preferred builder to prepare building plans and your building contract.  This keeps your costs down while your benefits go up.  

Project Design
We are committed to introducing 'comfortable living' to the project home market.  And that's a tough one.   However our research convinces us that these houses are feasible, economical, and can be constructed within the marketing guidelines presently enjoyed by the project home industry. 
To show how it can be done simply, and how builders can create great business opportunities, take a look at our website dealing with the book Comfortable Solar Solutions.  Most builders have absolutely no idea how to tap this lucrative market.  Seems they have yet to learn that people really do like to live comfortably and economically.

Information and Publications
We have information about beneficial design, energy aspects, planning issues, and marketing. Most has evolved from our exhaustive research and is printed material published by us. Please see our publications page  To better understand the urgency of solving the energy crisis, look no further than our EC page here

Shade aid
Pictured above is our new "shade-aid" pergola.  It comes in two forms, one for window shade and a larger version for patios.  All are designed and built especially for Perth climate conditions (North side).  Fixed blades control summer sun admission while admitting the greatest amount of winter sun possible.

Other services
We offer free (Perth metropolitan) site inspections for our clients or those committed to comfortable home design.

We consult on natural comfort too, aside from plans we prepare for our clients.   Far too often people face acute discomfort when they move into their new residence.  They are prey to an army of salespersons offering shade cloth, awnings, attic vents, insulation, air conditioners, fans, window tints, and the list goes on.  Then questions arise like, which is best?   Will it do what I want?  Is it the most cost efficient?  People hesitate because they feel that advice might be sales biased.  We are able to advise on these matters without favour except to solve problems economically of course.   Naturally you should seek this advice before you build so you can avoid unnecessary expense later.

Assets or liabilities?
Natural heating and cooling embraces 5 factors  You need to consider the climate, your land, your budget, your family, and the structure. Unfortunately most people fail to consider the one thing they cannot alter; the climate.

They fail to design in harmony with it, and nature inflicts her own punishment of course.  Of course sometimes things turn out very well by accident, but such cases are very rare. That is why artificial heating and cooling is so prevalent.  It turn that means high energy consumption that pollutes the environment while stealing from the family purse.   That's pretty silly we think, and we've yet to find a client who disagrees.

Do you see what is required?  Omit any one of those 5 factors from design considerations and your house will be less than satisfactory.  When you put family comfort first, and not last, everything else will fall into place. It's so simple!

Your first decision is absolutely vital   ...

Choose comfortable living    

If you can just get that right, we'll help you get the rest.  

Then you'll collect a whole range of benefits.

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