If you're buying a property, or planning a new home or renovation, it's worth considering what uses each room or space in your home will be put to, whether rooms will suit the uses they're intended for, and how many people will use a particular room at any one time. The answers to these questions will influence the size and layout of a room, its orientation, how it links with other rooms and much more.

Grouping similar activities together

As a general rule, similar or linked activities should be grouped together in your home. An obvious example is food preparation and eating - it wouldn't be convenient to have your kitchen a long way from your dining area.

It's also worth considering:

• grouping quiet activities together - sleeping and hobby rooms are best kept away from living areas where the stereo or TV might be playing loudly
• grouping utility/wet areas together - keeping the bathroom and laundry close by can help reduce your plumbing costs and contain plumbing noise in one part of the house.

Entryway

The entryway is where you'll greet guests and other people who come to your home. It should be well-defined with a clear front path.

A porch or verandah will provide protection from the weather and allow you to interact with visitors before they enter your home.

If mobility is an issue for anyone in the household, there should be flat access to the front door.

A separate entryway into a laundry or utility area can be useful for people who are wet and dirty after work, sport or any outdoor activity.

For security reasons, the entryway should be clearly visible both from the street and from inside your home.

The entryway should be visibly separate from any service areas such as the garage and areas where rubbish and recycling are kept.

Living areas

The size and layout of your living areas will depend on how many people use them, and what they're used for.

Your living areas might be used for any number of activities, including:

• children’s play
• entertaining guests
• watching TV
• quiet activities such as reading or hobbies
• working
• sleeping guests
• holding meetings.

All of these uses bring different requirements. A play space, for example, will require storage. And if you use your living areas for work or hobbies, you'll also need storage as well as a space to work.

If you host people in your home, you'll need enough living or dining areas that are big enough to accommodate them. As a rule of thumb, a 6m by 5m living room is large enough for a gathering of up to 20 people.

If you have guests to sleep over, your living area will need to be warm throughout the night. It will also need to be well-ventilated.

If you watch TV, lighting and glare from windows will be a consideration. See glazing for more on reducing glare.

Open plan or separate rooms

Modern homes are often designed with open plan living and dining areas. Opting for open plan can give you larger, more flexible living spaces suitable for many uses. It can also improve ventilation and mean you only need to heat one living area on winter evenings.

However, there can also be drawbacks such as noise from one person's activities (like listening to music or watching TV) interfering with another person's quiet activities (such as studying or doing a hobby).

If budget allows, some families choose separate formal and informal living areas. Others choose separate living spaces for teenagers and adults. One approach is to have adjoining spaces that can be closed off from each other when needed - for example, when you have visitors.

Access to bathrooms

All living areas should have easy access to the bathroom and toilet. However, these rooms shouldn't open off the living areas or be directly visible from them.

Orientation

In general, to receive maximum benefit from the sun, living areas should face north and have a reasonable amount of glazing. You'll also want to consider views, privacy, noise and prevailing wind/breezes.

If these considerations make you want to orient your living areas to the west, south or east, you may still be able to achieve passive heating gains through other methods such as insulation and heat collecting walls. If you orient a living area to the south, it may be hard to heat. If you orient it to the west, it may get too hot on summer afternoons. See orientation and passive heating for more.

Kitchen and dining

You may use your kitchen solely as a place to prepare coffee and breakfast, or you may be preparing large or elaborate meals for family and guests on a regular basis. Cooking may be a solitary activity or a social one.

How you use kitchen and dining areas will influence their size, layout and orientation, and determine whether the kitchen and dining areas are separate or combined.

An open plan kitchen-dining area can be good for entertaining and for families - but it can also mean kitchen mess is visible from the dining and/or living areas. It may be inappropriate for some families to have food preparation visible from the living areas when guests are present.

Your approach to cooking/entertaining will also influence the amount and type of storage you need - but don't skimp. Kitchen storage is specialised, so it's worth getting advice from a designer or architect.

For waste sorting and recycling in the design of your kitchen - have an easily accessible place for separate disposal bins for food scraps, plastic etc.

However you use your kitchen and dining areas, they need to be big enough to comfortably fit as many people as are likely to use them at any one time. In general, they should be designed so that two people can comfortably work in the kitchen together - for large families, more room may be needed.

Orientation

If you have children, you'll want your kitchen and dining area located so you're close to the rooms they play in. And you may want it oriented so you can see children playing outside.

It may be best to avoid west-facing kitchens - bright sunlight can stream in while you're cooking the evening meal, making the room uncomfortably hot. East-facing kitchens can be warmed by morning sun.

Bedrooms

The number and size of bedrooms depends on how many people live in your household and whether people share rooms.

Consider your current and future needs - you don't want to have to add on to your house if you have another child.

If possible, bedrooms should be oriented for privacy and away from sources of noise.

Children's bedrooms should provide for play and study space.

You'll need to provide storage for clothes and other personal effects. Children's bedrooms will need storage for toys, books etc.

Bathrooms and toilets

The number and location of bathrooms and toilets will depend on the number of people in your household, whether you have guests over, and the size and structure of your home.

You may want a separate toilet for guests. This should be easily accessible from the main living and dining areas as well as any outdoor living areas. However, it shouldn't be directly visible from any of these areas. You may also want separate bathrooms for children and adults.

In a home split across more than one level, you may need a toilet or bathroom on each floor. Likewise, if your home is large you may need more than one bathroom.

Having a separate toilet with a washbasin is more flexible than combining the toilet and bathroom.

Orientation

Bathrooms and other wet areas such as laundries aren't in constant use, don't need the sun, and generally won't have large windows. Often, designers will locate these rooms on the south side of the house so that other rooms you're in more often can receive maximum benefit from the sun.

If your bathrooms do get some sun, you can place windows to catch heat and breezes so wet areas can be easily ventilated and allowed to dry. You can also put towel racks near windows for drying towels instead of using a heated rail.

Indoor/outdoor living

Providing easy access to the outdoors relieves pressure on living areas and promotes healthy living. Outdoor living areas can be created by extending a concrete slab from the main floor of your home, or by using decks, verandahs, porches and so on.

You may want to provide for outdoor cooking and dining areas. Cooking areas might include a barbecue, hangi area, a bench for food preparation, and facilities for washing and preparing seafood or game.

Easy access to living, kitchen/dining and bathroom areas is important. You may want to have the outdoor living areas opening directly off the main living area.

Any design features such as porches and verandahs, and doors opening onto outdoor living areas, should be located to take account of sun, breezes, views and privacy. See orientation for more.

Other rooms/spaces

Laundries/utility rooms

Laundry activities and appliances may be included in kitchens or bathrooms if space is restricted; or can be separate areas usually located on the south side of the house (they don't need sun). A separate laundry with its own entrance means water and dirt from outside activity can be contained and cleaning products can have dedicated storage.

Multi-purpose rooms/spaces

Sleepouts, mezzanine floors, family/games rooms and studies/offices can all provide flexible spaces for multiple use.

A study, for example, will often double as a guest room. A mezzanine floor or sleepout can be used as an office or guest room depending on your needs at the time.

By providing for multi-purpose spaces you may be able to save yourself from having to build more than one room.

Kaumatua/granny flats

Your home may need to accommodate live-in relatives such as a parent or other relative. Having a kaumatua/granny flat will allow the relative to retain his or her own space and independence, while having you close by for support.

A separate flat should have its own kitchen and bathroom/toilet. It's also worth considering having a second bedroom so a grandchild or caregiver can live with the relative.

Access is important. The flat should be on ground level with easy access, both from the street and from your home.

Note that in some cultures it is considered disrespectful to house elderly relatives outside the main home.

Garages

Some garages double as workshops or storage areas. Make sure there's enough space to accommodate all needs.

Some families use garages as multi-purpose living areas to accommodate extra guests. If you do this, the garage should be lined and insulated, and damp-proof course used under the garage's concrete floor to help keep it warm and dry. It is also important to have two doors between garage and internal areas so vehicle fumes don't enter the house.

Thermally insulated garage doors are now available in New Zealand. These help to improve energy efficiency and to reduce noise.

Working from home

If you work from home, you'll need to consider where you'll be doing your work and how it will fit into the rest of your household's activities.

Will you have a separate study/office or will you do your work in a shared room such as a living area, dining area or bedroom? This may be possible if you live in a small, quiet household, but you may need a separate, quiet space if you have young children or a large extended family living with you.

You may also need to consider where you'll store the materials and files you need for your work, access to phone and internet connections, security for confidential work, and space for meetings.