Architect / Home Construction Feedback

[freebeard]

What fun.

Needs a topographical map. How deep is the lot?

Daylight basements are nice, they are earth-sheltered. You could cut-and-fill to get a bigger level floor area somewhere below street level.

Would it be possible to make a three-story house with the driveway a bridge to the third floor? There's a wife involved so probably not. But if you put living space above the garage, there's a possibility of fuel and solvent fumes filtering upward.

We haven't even got to whether is should be square (like the Romans) or round (like the Picts).

[redpoint5]

I was hoping freebeard would start thinking about how to domeify a multi-level into the side of a cliff.

I don't have a strong preference for shape except that I like lots of big windows, preserving elevation, and efficiency in all aspects (layout, thermal, materials, etc).

The larger lot is .44 acres. Not sure how that translates to depth of the lot.

[Angel And The Wolf]

Do you have all five of those vehicles? You would NEED a full floor garage. a lot of people have above garage living quarters. you could solar power vent fans if you are worried about fumes, or install garage to roof vent tubes with wind driven turbine caps.

A geodesic dome would look nice, with large triangular windows, but there may be neighborhood restrictions on architectural style.

[redpoint5]

I've got more than the cars listed here, but I'll keep all but 2 at my parent's place (and sell some). 2-3 car garage is fine.

That geodesic with triangle windows looks great.

I was just wondering why residential homes all have pitched roofs, but commercial all have flat roofs? It would be great to have a patio on the roof of the house. Failing that, I'd want a south facing pitched roof for potential solar real estate. I'd especially want south facing windows if possible for the solar gain. My house in Vancouver can go until November without using heat just from solar gain.

[freebeard]

I was hoping freebeard would start thinking about how to domeify a multi-level into the side of a cliff.

Way ahead of you. My thoughts went there as soon as I saw the thread title.

And I helped build some like that in the 1980s. The house shown at Permalink #7 is on a slope similar to the South Hills in Eugene, OR.

But not a full basement under a daylight basement under a main level under a garage level under an observatory. Any dome I built for myself would have a guard tower/observatory.

I'm not a fan of the glazed triangles. That lets in so much sunlight the UV bleaches your couch and carpeting. Better is carefully placed view windows and an oculus.



Rather than the 2x6 or 2x8 framing, I'd do a 1 or 2 frequency timber frame with a 3 or 6 frequency shell over that. It would look the same on the outside but have a nice ambience inside.

Houses have hip or gable roofs, commercial have flat roofs, but public spaces have domes.

[redpoint5]

I'd probably scratch that triangle window idea because I want to control solar heat gain with automated shades.

I like the flat roof idea because it doubles as a deck. Domes have good ambiance though.

[freebeard]

The first dome kit that came out of the factory I built for Oregon Dome was a 35ft dome that was placed over an L-shaped rectangular block.

Is a covered deck Okay? Ecomodder isn't letting me upload pix right now, but I will show you the 'McMansion' design that Oregon Dome wouldn't look at in 1980. Watch this space.

[Angel And The Wolf]

How deep is the lot? the further from the curb you build, the gentler the driveway slope can be. You could build an attached garage to the side. A dome is a better choice for a stilt mounted home due to it's shell strength. Your covered outdoor area could be under the dome floor, between the stilts. Freebeard?
I see West, (evening Sun) facing pretty much down the street, and South facing the Cul D' Sac and Sun blocking two story homes. Maybe your Grandparents would sell you a home lot to build on until you inherit the whole.

[redpoint5]

The farmland is not subdividable. Grandpa died 2 summers ago, and grandma seems to be going downhill (has MS).

That said, my wife's not in a rush to live right next to my parents, and we'd prefer to live in Silverton where she works.

[freebeard]

I still can't upload to an album so I threw these up on Imgur. The cardboard model I made in 1980. I couldn't interest anyone in it at the time.



I made some 3D models sometime in the last decade



The openings on a 39ft 3v dome are 16ft across, same as the diameter of a 16ft 2v octahedral dome. Both were available products from Oregon Dome. The 16ft prototype turned into the garage of the dome at the coast. The octahedral dome can be split and extended. The garage was split two ways, 10ft one way and 6ft the other.