Each simple house can accommodate 4 citizens. To have children, there must be only 2 adults in the house. So, if you want your population to expand, build more than the optimal number of houses. For example, if you have 12 adult citizens, build 6 houses instead of 3. It doesn't guarantee that they will all have children, but it increases the likelihood.

After several temperate seasons, there will be a dry season when your citizens can become overheated if their houses are in a hot temperature zone. You can prepare ahead for this and prevent it. The simplest approach is to build houses in the shadows of trees. Just view the map of shadows and place houses accordingly.
But in a more advanced situation, you should check the temperature map.

One of the first things you need to build for exploration is the Field Laboratory. It provides the opportunity to analyze plants on your map. Plants are the most common source of food and materials and, most importantly, replenishable. So it's essential to know what they can give you

The research tree is full of nodes for advancing prosperity. But your first goal is to create a solid survival basis. So what technologies should you pay attention to?
- Exploration Missions - after that you can make expeditions
- Cultivate Civil Engineering - necessary for making cultural research.
- Arboriculture and its "orbital" node Advanced Arboriculture - gives the opportunity to harvest resources from trees
- Fruit- and Vegetable Preservation - effectiveness of making food
- Plant Reintroduction - game changer. Now you can plant trees, vegetables and so on at your own. Just find a place with suitable conditions.
- Sandgliders - faster expeditions
- Technologies with Point Of Interest (Advanced Harvest Methods, Securing Caves, etc.) - may be helpful if you have an appropriate Point
But keep in mind that some research that looks not so good can unlock new choices in expeditions

Research is important, but you will have enough time to obtain all the necessary nodes. While expeditions require more time to explore all the territory. Also, expeditions provide resources that cannot be obtained in any other way. I suggest the following priorities for striving for expedition rewards:
- New plants
- Tablets
- Technological Artefacts
- Culture
- Resources that you cannot produce or that are not replenished

High tier research requires high cultural level. The easiest way to get it is to produce cultural level from houses that have influence of working Hall Of Wisdom. And it doesn't require spending resources to maintain.

I think it's a good strategy to build more production and service buildings than your citizens can completely fill, so you can rearrange your working power. For example, build several Pickers' Cabins in the different areas where plants are growing and switch workers between them for optimal harvesting. Produce construction materials if you need them, and leave the buildings empty after that. Also, you can abandon Purification Basins in a dry season due to their reduced productivity and make up for the shortage in a temperate season. There are plenty of variations.

Don’t strive to build everything perfectly the first time. During the game, you will face plenty of situations where you will understand that your city layout is wrong—maybe you took the place that's good for plants, changed your mind on your district composition, or got a new building type from research. Just destroy and build differently. All resources will be returned after destruction, so it's just your workers time spent.

One of the sources of Prosperity points is Housing Satisfaction. It's based on Well-Being, Social, Culture and Knowledge for every house. And there are buildings that increase these parameters, but at a cost of resources. For example, Weather Station, Scent Garden, School, etc. You may temporarily "burn" resources for obtaining Culture for specific research, but most of the time, spending precious materials on that type of buildings will be waste, so I advise you to avoid it early on. Do it only in the late game, when you want to maximize your score.

Thanks for reading! Your comments and clarifications are welcome