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Laurenz
Joined: 08 Apr 2008
Posts: 3
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 Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2008 6:12 pm Post subject: Living in an "Ecosphere" Hightech selfsustained ho |
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More than ever before people around the world are becoming concerned with the way we're treating our environment and resources. And the reaction we get in return from it...
For my last year project in ID. I made it my task to design a completely self sustained, "zero" to "energy plus" building, prefabricated but still customizable and easy to set up.
My questions, if you'd build a house or are looking to buy one:
Can you imagine and would you like a completely different shape to conventional buildings? For what reasons, - strength, solar gain, corners are not natural, aerodynamics...?
What do you expect or want from a home?
What makes it comfortable to you?
What luxuries should it have?
How much would you consider natural forces in the design, such as storms, earthquakes, flooding and fire?
Have you built before or know people that have, or lived in such a place and is there anything you'd do different next time?
Any input would be much appreciated |
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lekizz
millennium club
Joined: 11 Jan 2006
Posts: 1000
Location: UK
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| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 2:50 am Post subject: |
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| Is this a survey? In that case it may be better addressed somewhere else. Almost all of the people here will be design professionals whose day-to-day job is to design buildings for other people (occasionally themselves) |
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Antisthenes
Joined: 28 Nov 2006
Posts: 536
Location: Phoenix
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| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 9:34 am Post subject: |
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i already have a few designs of just what you are talking about if you want to do some brainstorming let me know.
_________________
The most necessary/useful piece of learning is that which unlearns what is untrue: 'evil'
may be acquired, Happiness through virtue which is based on knowledge!/? |
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JWmHarmon
Joined: 15 Apr 2004
Posts: 109
Location: Ohio
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| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 11:52 am Post subject: New design ideas may be difficult to sell |
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New design ideas may be difficult to sell. Many people want to fit in with the crowd when they are planning on building a new home. They also may want a more traditional design or at least the current fashion with an eye towards the future sale of the property.
Having an unusual design often makes a property less marketable.
If we were to take a different approach to building houses we would be examining what makes them vulnerable to storm, fire, earthquake and other hazards. We would then design them to offset those vulnerabilities.
To get on the current band wagon of "carbon footprint" and "green building," we would examine how to make the residence a "Zero sum energy" house. This could be done by restructuring our designs to take advantage of solar heat gain or prevention of heat gain, natural draft heating and cooling, and energy production.
Our houses in flood prone areas would be elevated or designed to float on the flood waters. Houses in high wind areas would reduce the flat surface areas that lead to wind resistance and uplift. We would put models of our house designs into wind tunnels to test their resistance to wind damage.
In fire prone areas we would build houses of non-combustible materials with provisions for closing off any openings that provide a path for fire to enter the structure.
Such structures would most likely be completely different from the designs of houses in current housing developments.
I am not sure that there is currently a market for such houses although such a market could be developed with sufficient effort.
I will note here the geodesic dome houses of the mid- to late 1900's, particularly those built in the 1970's.
Also in the 1970's there were many experiments with earth-sheltered houses. These designs have not caught on with the majority of house buyers.
Domed houses that have a better resistance to wind damage have not caught on in hurricane prone areas. We still build houses in the storm surge path.
We should be asking questions about how we should use our resources wisely. Of course that will mean different things to different people.
What is essential for a house? What luxuries do you want in a house? What luxuries are reasonable? How can we reduce our "carbon footprint?" What can we do to make our house "zero energy" houses?
These are all current questions that are worth exploring.
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When building or manufacturing always ask, "How will we recycle that?" - JWmHarmon |
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Antisthenes
Joined: 28 Nov 2006
Posts: 536
Location: Phoenix
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| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 11:58 am Post subject: |
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so true
i know a few that banks will not finance because they are "out of the ordinary" so they don't know how to asses them
_________________
The most necessary/useful piece of learning is that which unlearns what is untrue: 'evil'
may be acquired, Happiness through virtue which is based on knowledge!/? |
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csintexas
millennium club
Joined: 06 Feb 2006
Posts: 1670
Location: USA
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| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 3:50 pm Post subject: |
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Yep, you're talking to a bunch of designers so of coarse we tend to like those sorts of concepts.
I think we are at the very beginning of the "green era".
On the other hand if you look around and see how much of the built environment meets your description you will see how popular these concepts are up till present.
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Chris Stewart
Modern Texas Home Project |
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Laurenz
Joined: 08 Apr 2008
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 6:44 pm Post subject: |
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Thank you all, its good to hear your thoughts on this... I wanna ad at this point that I'm looking at the holistic view of the concept. Architecture, structure, product, energy rating/efficiency, greenhouse etc.
This is big for a final year project, but very relevant atm. and interesting to research about.
Even if the prize goes up I want to include high quality (as "green" as possible at least) materials and technologies (spaceloft insulation, PV and hydrogen system...) |
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csintexas
millennium club
Joined: 06 Feb 2006
Posts: 1670
Location: USA
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| Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2008 8:42 pm Post subject: |
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High tech is certainly exciting but it often isn't all that green.
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Chris Stewart
Modern Texas Home Project |
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