New experimental house designs

Curtis · February 10, 2009, 03:02:44 PM

Hey, hows it going everyone?

I've been interested in building my own house for a while. The original plan was your normal log cabin. Then after reading into green construction methods, I began to think about other ways to build, that are more energy efficient, and in most cases cheaper. Let me know what you think, and ask me any questions you may have.

Partial underground, with living roof and attached greenhouse

Here is the structural support.

Render of the entrance. Have vines hanging down from the roof and just a lot of greenery.

Overview of the house with the Plants turned off. Miniramp is there because I BMX.

Southside of the house, with the attached greenhouse.

Kitchen with pantry. Entrance to a fallout shelter / root cellar is inside the pantry. Built in desk to the left.

Living area. Gotta have a fireplace. The TV nook / cabinets are actually built into the wall and are underground aswel.

Kitchen to the left, living to the right. Windows look into greenhouse, and door enters it. Just an open area.

Bedroom and office area.

Not a very good screenshot, but the bedroom closet on the right, and on the left there would be a 'false wall', with a hidden corridor that leads outside. It could come in handy, haha.

Outside the bedroom. You see the opening to the hidden corridor.

FULLY UNDERGROUND

Side view of home. On the top right you have the uphill greenhouse, the stairs from that lead into a hall outside of the bedroom (the room below the greenhouse, in red). The main living area is to the left and below the bedroom.

View from above. Front entrance, downhill greenhouse. Doghouse. I like this design, however the use of sky lights and light tubes are expensive and decrease effeiceiny of an underground home. Plus they can leak, and create other problems. Its a cool concept, none the less.

Hall connecting the uphill greenhouse, to the room, to the house. Also shows wood storage or whatever for the fireplace.

Bedroom with fireplace. Window overlooking living area, but now that I think about it a loft or something would be a good idea there. Increase cross ventaliation and overall distribution of light. There is also a window from the uphill greenhouse that opens into the room.

EARTHBAG HOME

Overview. This would have a living roof aswell. As you can tell, im not finished with it.

Front side of the house.

Front door

Looking from the living area into the kitchen. Pantry on the right. Bathroom and utility straight ahead. Dining / entrance to the left.

Another view of the dining/ktichen/living area.

Over view of the bathroom and what not. Also an outdoor shower, with entrance to greenhouse and stuff. This house is designed so all the plumbing is one area.

I have got to be able to ride my bike somewhere!

Curtis · February 10, 2009, 03:05:27 PM

And here is another one I forgot to add. Still not finished, ran into a few problems with the design but I may try to set that aside and try to work it out.

Questions? Comments?

February 10, 2009, 03:37:18 PM

Looks like you've been busy, Curtis.

Don't forget that skylights can also invite a wandering deer, bear or elk to drop in if they run across it. With a raised wall around it or vertical section as you have in some it's not as likely though.

Curtis · February 10, 2009, 03:52:45 PM

Quote from: glenn kangiser on February 10, 2009, 03:37:18 PM
Looks like you've been busy, Curtis.

You have no idea, haha. I really dislike the winter, I never get to ride my bike and I end up doing this all day.

I have a million projects going on. I'm working on a Skyscraper, and some skateparks.

In San Antonio, they're breaking ground on four new skateparks. There is some talk getting started that I may be able to design one, so hopefully that all works out.

I'll post up some more if anyone is interested in seeing non-house designs?

Jens · February 10, 2009, 10:38:22 PM

You had me at miniramp! I am a skateboarder, it's been a few months, but been skating off and on for 24 years now.

February 10, 2009, 10:41:13 PM

Oh yeah, sorry...house looks pretty cool too

Sassy · February 11, 2009, 12:18:16 AM

Some pretty creative ideas, Curtis! They all look like fun houses - you're pretty good on the computer

That would be great if you got to design a skate park.

glenn kangiser · February 11, 2009, 12:49:51 AM

Curtis, feel free to start a topic in Off Topics for a non-house topic. Nice design work.

The clandestine exit is cool too - never know when you might need to slip out the back way, eh? I want one too....

Curtis · February 11, 2009, 02:35:43 PM

Quote from: glenn kangiser on February 11, 2009, 12:49:51 AM
The clandestine exit is cool too - never know when you might need to slip out the back way, eh? I want one too....

It could come in handy. I would hope that escaping for some reason would not be necessary, but better safe than sorry

February 11, 2009, 02:56:18 PM

Very cool arch at the front of the house. Didn't I see something like this in a Star Trek movie?

Curtis · February 12, 2009, 05:12:25 PM

I'm not sure, I don't think I've successfully sat down and watched an entire episode Star Trek

Its possible though.

Thanks everyone.

ben2go · February 12, 2009, 07:39:24 PM

That's cool.Google Sketch Up works good.Have you seen Glenn's underground house,yet?

NM_Shooter · February 15, 2009, 11:46:18 AM

Curtis, what tool did you do this with?

You have a good eye for design.

Curtis · February 15, 2009, 11:19:42 PM

Thanks everyone.

ben2go, I've seen Glenn's house. Its amazing, and has inspired me to do something aswell. He gave me some good advice when I first came here.

NM_Shooter, I used Google SketchUp. Its a free program that can be downloaded here: http://sketchup.google.com/

There is a professional version of it, that costs money, but I did all of my work in the free version. I'm not sure what the differences are, but the free one is good enough for most.

February 18, 2009, 04:36:45 PM

Alright guys. I made one more, its a little sloppy and not as detailed as the others but I whipped it up in a little over an hour. I had to ask myself, what is the smallest area I could live in comfortably? What is the bare minimum I need for a house? This is what I came up with.

Over view. I'm not sure if the greenhouse should be considered when figuring out how many square feet the house has, but I listed the measurements anyhow. I wanted to try to design a house under 200 sq ft, as talked about in the other thread here, but I just couldn't do it (without a loft, which I dont think I want).

So, nothing special. Just a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living area and greenhouse.

I'll update this post when I actually finish the design, because the walls will really be about a foot and a half thick, constructed of earthbag on the part that is underground, and perhaps strawbale on the above ground part. It will have a living roof, like all my designs.

Any comments? I need to pick a design I like and stick with it, so I can start trying to make it a reality. I could build that, to test out my ability of building something (Haha), and live there while I get used to the lifestyle of living that way, and while I save money to build a more elaborate house, that is larger.

The water heater would be placed in my bedroom closet, which borders the bathroom.

The only thing that would possibly change, design wise, would be placement of front door, and greenhouse placement, although it will remain attached.

EDIT: Started a blog to discuss all of this. The link is in my signature.

lipadier · February 18, 2009, 08:57:24 PM

Very interesting, I love to play with the idea to plan (and build) a very tiny house just for the sake of it too.

Looking at your design, I would make the bathroom the same width as the bedroom, making the whole house even more simpler with just two straight walls inside. Flipping the bedroom and bathroom would make the plumbing easier because kitchen and bathroom are near eachother. With this you would also have the windows of bedroom and living room possibly facing to south:

(--SOUTH
_________________________________
l l l
l l l
l Bedroom l Bathroom l
l l l
l l l
l______Door_________ l__Door_______l
l l
l l
l l
l Living Room Kitchen l
l l
l l
l__Door___________________________l

Curtis · February 19, 2009, 02:43:57 PM

Thanks, yeah that makes much more sense!

In my other designs, I have made it so that all the plumbing was in one general area, but I dont know what I was thinking with this one, haha. I just whipped right through it.

I will start a new, updated design today and will post it in another thread as this is the one I think i'm really wanting to build.

bayview · February 19, 2009, 03:04:35 PM

Wouldn't the heat from the greenhouse, against the bedroom make for uncomfortable sleeping?

Curtis · February 19, 2009, 03:47:33 PM

Perhaps. I didn't think about it, really.

But its all being rearanged anyway.

The greenhouse will be attached to the kitchen, and will be accessed from it as well, no longer from the outside.
Also so its closest to some plumbing, to make it easier to have a spiget inside.