Listen up, volume house builders. Here’s an idea that could help your business and our suburbs.

The great Australian dream of a detached home in the suburbs may not be as popular as it once was. Despite this, detached housing built by volume builders – those who frequently offer house and land packages – continues to represent a significant number of our new dwellings built each year. While townhouses and apartments are increasing in popularity, the suburban house is still often seen to offer the most volume-for-dollar and are particularly attractive for young families.

There is no doubt that the home building industry is particularly competitive. We can see this in the way new homes are aggressively marketed to first home buyers and it is also evident in the way these homes are designed. Every opportunity is taken to cut the cost for the builder in order for them to remain competitive and stay in business.

The standard approach for volume builders is to offer a range of home designs for the consumer to pick and choose from. Larger builders have about 100 designs to choose from, while smaller operators have a narrower selection.

For the consumer, the upfront design costs of the overall building are then split over the number of times a particular home design is built. While this saves the consumer about 10 per cent of the upfront cost, a downside is that one of the biggest fundamentals of good building design – solar orientation – is lost.

The correct solar orientation of a house will enable your living areas to receive sunlight in winter, thus keeping them warmer and shading the building in summer. This fundamental design practice substantially reduces the energy required to heat and cool your home.

Despite this, the cookie cutter approach that the volume builder market creates does not currently address this fundamental principle. Instead of designing with solar orientation in mind, the standard designs rely on smaller window sizes, so that the minimum required energy rating can be achieved, regardless of which side of the building faces north.

Given that this housing type will continue to be an important percentage of dwellings built in Australia every year, we must ask ourselves if there is a better way?

There would appear to be a substantial opportunity for a large volume builder to break the mould and begin to sell houses to match a specific orientation.

Instead of offering 100 universal designs, why not offer 25 designs which are specifically developed for each quadrant of the compass? This could even begin as a smaller subset of their total offering, specifically targeting those who want a properly-oriented home. The design cost is still split among the number of each house built, which – in theory – should not cost the builder or the purchaser any additional design money.

Those choosing such a home could enjoy larger north-facing windows, better daylight exposure and lower energy bills. For the builders who adopt such a business strategy there are also benefits to be had. Helping people chose a product that is right for their situation goes a long way towards achieving genuine customer satisfaction.

A house design being is reused multiple times should not mean it should restrict the outcome to mediocrity. Precisely because of its repetitive nature, it is even more important for the design to be to everyone’s benefit.

So, volume home builders, take a moment to consider what you are currently offering. Your customers deserve better.

Michael Smith is a director of architectural practice at Atelier Red+Black. He also writes the blog The Red+Black Architect.