As block sizes in Western Australia continue to shrink in size and boundary space, builders and designers are now looking to more creative ways to flood homes with natural light.

Arklen have executed many of its designs to create more natural light entrances, while also complementing the visual design of the home.

Arklen Managing Director Mark Diedricks spoke with New Homes to provide some advice on incorporating more light into an existing home, as well as sharing some of the architectural secrets of designing a new home with plenty of natural light and windows.

“It’s a tricky topic because you can pretty easily throw skylights everywhere, or even windows everywhere, but it doesn’t necessarily complement the space every time,” he said.

“Your focus is to lead in light but you also want to create a feature, so if we can combine the two, we’re basically doing two jobs at once.”

Mr Diedricks said there is more opportunity on a single-storey, including upper glazing and clerestory windows, or dormer windows connected to the roof to allow for more northern exposure to the sun.

However, the task becomes more difficult on certain lot types and home designs.

“Typically long and narrow lots, in particular zero lot homes, are the most difficult,” he said.

“The solution in this scenario would be skylights and a new or modern design approach to the original skylight.”

Another tough layout, according to Mr Diedricks, is a double-storey home.

“It’s definitely harder with two-storey homes, you have far less options available to get light in,” he said.

“Getting light into the upper floor is no issue, it’s just the ground floor which is completely covered, generally.

“You can only really do it through a double-height void or set back your upper floor. Some sort of internal courtyard or double-height void can penetrate light through to the lower floor.”

Mr Diedricks highlighted Arklen’s custom build in Spearwood as one of the more creative and architectural designs for added light.

“It’s virtually an architect’s version of a skylight instead of your standard skylights,” he said.

“You’ve got the upper floor, which is set back and gives you the opportunity to do a feature skyline, and you’ll see it where you’ve got exposed rafters – virtually the whole ceiling through that living area is a skylight.”

When looking to maintain a light and bright home, there is more to think of than just outlooks to the outdoors.

Mr Diedricks said light-coloured walls and reflective surfaces such as mirrors, benchtops and flooring were other simple, low-cost solutions to add more light to darker areas of a home.