Detached or 'stand-alone' house Print

​Advantages

This is the conventional house form, and is very common in Auckland. It successfully integrates in to most existing urban areas, and avoids the potential complexity of having a wall on a neighbour’s boundary.​​

Disadvantages

As site sizes decrease and house sizes increase, there is a risk of houses becoming surrounded by narrow, unusable outdoor spaces. This can lead to small back yards and overlooking issues if the houses are too close. Also, passive solar design, or the ability to heat and cool your house naturally, can be compromised by large footprints with small separations from boundaries.

Design considerations 

Maximise development on the front part of the site, and the amount of open space behind the property. This will ensure wider distances between properties.  

Reducing the size of the house can mean more outdoor space around the building as well as potentially smaller energy bills as there is less house to heat.  

If the spaces around the house are too small or unusable, consider building up instead of out. For example, building two stories instead of one, to a side boundary (Zero lot) or using a different house type, such as a courtyard house.​

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