Whether you plan to design your new house yourself or whether you plan to appoint a draughtsman or architect, you will have to consider a variety of important issues in the planning process. Once you have made the decision to go the brand new house way, the first stumbling block rolls into your path: You are going to need a building plan to be approved by the relevant local authority! (See I need a building plan!)

However, before you start thinking of a building plan, the planning of your news house must kick in. In my opinion, this is the biggest fun part of the whole house building process!

First things first...

First of all you need all the site-specific information relevant to the site (erf) where you intend to build your future home. See the building block on statutory requirements and restrictions in What comes with property ownership in this blog. The very first document you will need is the SG diagram, obtainable from the Surveyor General's office. This is extremely important, especially in this day and age where modern urban stands are relatively small - anything in the range of 400m²to 800m². Also, you will need the exact boundary lines of the stand to ensure that you new house will fit onto the stand, and that it does not exceed the maximum coverage allowed. Another option is to appoint a land surveyor to survey your stand and place the boundary pegs in the correct positions. The land surveyor will issue you with a diagram showing the erf dimensions and surface area. You can also request a contour plan from your land surveyor if your erf is located on a slope. This will cost more, but a contour plan will assist greatly in planning and designing a house on a slope.

Now that you have the size of your stand with the position of the site boundaries, you will begin to form an idea about the maximum dimensions of the house that will fit onto the stand. But... remember the other most important restrictions on any urban erf, namely the so-called building lines. As explained in What comes with property ownership, apart from possible servitudes, your erf will probably also be subject to building lines, which are imaginary setbacks from each erf boundary in which you normally cannot build. Typical building lines for urban stands may be 5m from a street boundary, 3m from a rear boundary and 2m from a side boundary.

Now you should have a clear picture of what size house can fit or not fit onto your property! Now comes the time to start thinking about other site specific issues.

Site specific issues to consider in your planning

Maybe you are in the fortunate position that you have thought a lot about the basic concept of your new house and have a clear picture of what kind of house you want before buying a stand on which to build it. In this case you may hunt for the ideal stand to suit your needs, although this may be quite an unlikely scenario. The more likely scenario is that you have bought a stand maybe some time ago, and you now want to build a house for you and your family, or even to speculate with (build a house to sell it at a profit at a later stage). Remember that the site has been there long before you, and that each stand possesses some characteristics inherent to the location of the property. As the designer of your house you should embrace these characteristics and plan and design your home to respond to the specific characteristics of the property, rather than just plonk down the house and hope for the best! Apart from the statutory requirements discussed in the post on What comes with property ownership elsewhere in the blog, here are some pointers for you to consider in planning your new home:

Orientation:

Here I am referring to the physical orientation of the property's site boundaries, as well as the potential orientation of the future house relative to true north (in the southern hemisphere). When a house is orientated towards a particular direction, it means that most of the windows of living and bedrooms are facing in that direction. Since orientation plays a major role in passive design, it has everything to do with keeping the house cool in summer and warm in winter, in the most energy-efficient way. For this reason, in South Africa one should strive to design and build the house with a mostly northerly orientation, while the opposite will be true in the northern hemisphere. Orientation also directly affects the amount of natural light coming into the house, further assisting in being energy-efficient. The correct orientation of the house on the building site contributes greatly to passive design elements. Passive design is a sustainable building standard that responds to local climate and site conditions to maintain a comfortable temperature in the home. It focuses on renewable sources of energy such as the sun and wind to provide household heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting.

As a side remark it can be noted that older neighbourhoods were mostly laid out in a grid pattern with most erven having a proper northerly orientation. Because of a tendency to design new residential townships for improved social living, many newer developments have circular routes, crescents and cul-de-sacs, resulting in much less opportunity to fit north facing houses on the erven.

Slope:

Building sites, including urban residential erven, are rarely completely flat, although the relatively small size of most modern urban stands may not allow for much slope. Still, the slope of the land may be a major consideration when planning and designing a house, especially when the slope is severe. It is important to take note of the direction or orientation of the slope, as well as the severity. Minor slopes can easily be accommodated with a technique called "cut-to-fill", where a higher portion of the land is excavated and this material is used to fill up the lower portion of the land. In the case of more severe slopes, it is advisable to obtain a contour map of the site to assist in the design process. If you are fortunate enough, a contour map may be obtained from your local town planning office, but it would be advisable to rather appoint a land surveyor to conduct a proper survey and draw up an accurate contour plan. The slope of the land may offer wonderful design opportunities, but will usually result in a house with multiple levels, which may not always be desirable, especially if the occupants are not so young and mobile anymore.

Access:

In typical South African suburban towns, access to each erf is usually provided via a neighbourhood street, defining the access to the erf. Depending on the layout of the suburb, access to the erven can be from any side, hence you get erven with access from the northern side, or the eastern, western or southern side. The side from which access to the stand is obtained, has a major influence on the design of the house. It can be argued that a northern access is not so desirable, as one would prefer not to sacrifice a portion of the northern facade of the house for a garage door, when a window to let sun in would be much more beneficial. A southern access may have the disadvantage of showing the "rear side" of the house to the street, resulting in a view of the kitchen and bathrooms with associated services from the street. It may be argued that access to the stand from the eastern or western side would be mostly preferred.

However, the potential home designer seldom has the freedom to choose the orientation of the street access to the stand, so it is important to make the most of what you have when it comes to planning and designing of the house. Never underestimate the value of "curb appeal", the look and feel of the house as seen from the street when you approach the house. Always design the house in such a way that you and your visitors feel welcome. Alway make the main entrance to the house rather prominent and never hide your front door from the street so as to make someone guess where the heck is the entrance to this house!

Since many South African home owners are more or less tied to their cars, it is important to recognise this fact when planning the access to your house. It therefore just makes sense to focus the entrance of your house towards the street entrance to the erf. The house must be planned, placed and orientated on the erf in such a way that a sense of arrival is created for yourself and your guests.

Views:

If you are the owner of a property with a view, you are very fortunate indeed. Whether it be a view of the city, the country, a forest, a mountain, the sea, a golf course or whatever view you have, always try to treasure the view and accommodate it in your design and orientation of the house. Respecting a view may however pose several challenges, as the view may not necessarily coincide with the most favourable orientation of the house or the angle of the sun for your locality. The high premium usually placed on prime views in many cases warrants a compromise in terms of most of these other considerations.

Trees and other natural features:

Large and especially indigenous trees may either be an asset to your property or a big headache when the erf is small and the tree is positioned where you intend to place your house. I would always vote for the perseverance of existing indigenous trees, and would encourage you to plan and design your new house to respect any such trees. Although it might be quite costly, you may even consider replanting rare specimen trees on your property when they cannot be accommodated in your design. Keep in mind that the felling of a huge mature tree can be a mammoth undertaking and can be quite dangerous, so this is best left to a professional tree feller.

Soil type:

The type of soil conditions present on your erf is quite important as it can have a major impact on the building costs. Depending on the bearing capacity of sandy soils which can be prevalent in certain areas in the Western and Northern Cape, special foundation measures may be required to successfully transfer the weight of the house to the ground. Areas with a high water table that are swampy with a high presence of reeds and rushes, may be indicative of soil with a high clay content. High clay content soil tends to heave and sag under wet and dry conditions respectively and it may be best to first excavate the clay layer and to replace it with a suitable material prior to construction. Dolomitic soil conditions can be another expensive problem to address, as it may be necessary to replace normal strip foundations with a reinforced concrete raft designed to withstand possible sinkhole forming.

When you encounter suspect soil conditions on your erf, it is best to discuss it with an expert like a geotechnical engineer or geologist. You may also require the services of a structural engineer to design special foundations or a raft.

Source: Portions of this post have been based on William J Hirsch, Designing your perfect house.