The inspiration for our current plans are largely based on a design by Owen Geiger at the Natural Building Blog. I don't know if anyone has ever built this house design (whilst plans are available from the site, it's not clear how many people have purchased each one let alone built it).
I ditched the curve fairly early on, for simplicity's sake, though it means putting in buttresses to support the walls. This was helpful initially doing drawings and sketches, but more recently I've wanted to add them back in again. At first I diverted quite a long way away from the original layout, and found myself coming back to it with each drawing. Eventually, the only addition was lofts.
Currently these plans have been done just by me in SketchUp. Ultimately we'll need to involve an architect, or a structural engineer at the very least. But we want to have a very clear idea of what we're asking for before we do, as it's unlikely we'll find people who have experience with this kind of building. Given the overall project it's also important that either Kyle or I (or both if possible) have a pretty solid understanding of the whole thing and each of the features we want to use so that we can take advantage of recycled materials we find, and if something doesn't happen as planned during the build we can improvise effectively.
There are a lot of details still to iron out. I'd like it to be a bit smaller overall, but we'll have to work on the layout a little and work out how attached we are to our current furniture. For example, we have a big purple couch at the moment. We love it dearly, chose it very carefully, and use it thoroughly. But, we could have a couch that is also a rocket mass heater. Having such a large object fulfil multiple functions makes good sense in a small house. In-built furniture has other benefits, you can work ventilation around it more easily, it can be structural support for something, and you don't have to worry about the fabric fading in the sunlight (not that I did anyway, clearly I make a poor homemaker).
So it will be a little while before our development application gets made, but we have a start. Aside from the house plans there are other plans, like the composting toilet application and solid fuel heater application if we do decide to put in a rocket mass heater (seems a no-brainer to me).
I ditched the curve fairly early on, for simplicity's sake, though it means putting in buttresses to support the walls. This was helpful initially doing drawings and sketches, but more recently I've wanted to add them back in again. At first I diverted quite a long way away from the original layout, and found myself coming back to it with each drawing. Eventually, the only addition was lofts.
Currently these plans have been done just by me in SketchUp. Ultimately we'll need to involve an architect, or a structural engineer at the very least. But we want to have a very clear idea of what we're asking for before we do, as it's unlikely we'll find people who have experience with this kind of building. Given the overall project it's also important that either Kyle or I (or both if possible) have a pretty solid understanding of the whole thing and each of the features we want to use so that we can take advantage of recycled materials we find, and if something doesn't happen as planned during the build we can improvise effectively.
I'm not really convinced by the split levels in the roof. I did it that way at first, so we could have a loft on one side, but in hindsight I think it'll be easier to have the whole roof at the same level and have lofts on both sides. The split is likely to be a weak point for leaks, and difficult to put together. Then you need fancy bits for guttering, and the higher the roof the less restricted you are in terms of water flow into tanks given the loss of vertical height in leaf traps and first-flush diverters.
There are a lot of details still to iron out. I'd like it to be a bit smaller overall, but we'll have to work on the layout a little and work out how attached we are to our current furniture. For example, we have a big purple couch at the moment. We love it dearly, chose it very carefully, and use it thoroughly. But, we could have a couch that is also a rocket mass heater. Having such a large object fulfil multiple functions makes good sense in a small house. In-built furniture has other benefits, you can work ventilation around it more easily, it can be structural support for something, and you don't have to worry about the fabric fading in the sunlight (not that I did anyway, clearly I make a poor homemaker).
So it will be a little while before our development application gets made, but we have a start. Aside from the house plans there are other plans, like the composting toilet application and solid fuel heater application if we do decide to put in a rocket mass heater (seems a no-brainer to me).
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