How to design a 6m frontage house in Adelaide

On a 6 metre frontage after side setbacks, a front-loading double garage will occupy the entire usable width of the ground floor. That is not a design choice, it is arithmetic. You have three alternatives.

First, rear-loading via a laneway. This is the ideal outcome, and works in a handful of Adelaide infill suburbs where subdivision has left a rear service laneway. Check the property title for a right-of-way easement and confirm council will permit vehicle access.

Second, single garage plus a tandem. One car sits in a covered garage, a second parks in a driveway tandem behind. This works well for two-car families where one car is used more than the other. Design a lockable secure lane for bins and side access.

Third, single-car garage plus street parking. This suits inner suburbs with reliable street parking. It maximises ground-floor living space and often produces the best design outcome, but is a genuine lifestyle trade-off.

On a narrow-block two-storey home, the stair position determines whether the upstairs floor plan is functional or awkward. There are two viable positions and one to avoid.

The strong position is a central stair, either straight-run or L-shaped, that lands on an upstairs hallway with bedrooms on both sides. This gives balanced bedroom access and allows a compact upstairs footprint.

The second viable position is a rear stair, sitting behind the garage on the ground floor and landing at a rear hallway upstairs. This works when the front rooms need to be as large as possible on both floors, at the cost of a longer walk to the front bedrooms.

The position to avoid is a front-and-side stair that pushes upstairs bedrooms to the rear only. On a narrow block this usually forces the master bedroom to face the neighbour boundary with poor natural light. Discuss stair options with the designer before the first concept plan is drawn.

Narrow-block homes are notorious for feeling gloomy at their centre. Side windows are limited by boundary distance and neighbour overlooking rules. Front and rear windows only serve a small proportion of the internal area.

The design solution is overhead light. A skylight above the stair void, or a linear rooflight along the upstairs hallway, can transform the feel of the whole home. Both are affordable additions at design stage and are difficult to retrofit later.

For the ground floor, consider a void above the kitchen or dining area that lets upstairs light down. Even a modest 2 by 3 metre void will materially change the perceived brightness of the ground floor. On a west-facing block, this also allows summer heat to escape upward through operable clerestory windows.

Narrow-block homes rarely have a garage or a shed for overflow storage. That means storage must be designed into the home from concept stage, not added later.

The four locations that repay every dollar of design effort: a floor-to-ceiling entry wardrobe near the front door for coats, shoes, sports gear and school bags; a walk-in pantry off the kitchen that is at least 1.5 by 1.5 metres and includes a bench for small appliances; a family-sized bathroom cabinet with mirrored doors that runs full wall length; and under-stair storage carved into a lockable joinery unit with drawers and shelves.

For families with active kids, add a dedicated laundry storage strategy. A narrow-block laundry that only fits a washer and dryer will not accommodate the linen, cleaning products and utility items that a family of four generates. Design at least two metres of shelving above the washer, and a full-height cupboard beside it.

A 6 metre frontage block typically has a rear yard of 5 to 8 metres deep. That is a small courtyard rather than a garden, and it needs to be treated as an outdoor room rather than an afterthought.

Design the outdoor space at the same time as the internal plan. A single strong feature (a mature tree in a large planter, a linear water feature, a covered pergola with a woodfire) sets the character of the whole home. Avoid trying to include lawn, garden bed, entertainment zone and vegetable patch in a small courtyard. Pick two and do them well.

On very small courtyards, consider a vertical garden along the boundary fence, which softens the enclosure without eating floor area. Install a small tap and outdoor power point at design stage; retrofitting either later is expensive and messy.