HouseDesign

Revision as of 15:06, 22 October 2010

This is the page for Nemo to design his "realistic" DreamHouse. Whereas the DreamHouse is the fantasy "money is no object" idea ground, this page is for more real-world feasible plans, drawing inspiration from the DreamHouse as nescessary of course...

It is intended to be ideas that are feasible under a normal sort of budget, yet still interesting and inovative. (see the Furniture page for the sort of things that might furnish the house (esp the bookcases! :)

For now, just some notes...

Directions

(Based on a southern hemisphere orientation)

North

gets midday sun - good to heat the house? Entertainment areas

• Since noted that in the tropic/sub-tropics, the afternoon sun is hotter and is south.

East

gets morning sun

South

no sun. "boring". Good for amenities and library (to keep it from the sun direct)

West

sunsets and post-midnight full mooon sets. Entertainment areas and Bedrooms.

Rooms

• Library - facing south to avoid direct sunlight onto books (but means no nighttime moon-lit library either? :(
• Master Bedroom - facing west to catch the after-midnight full moon. Only dedicated bedroom of the house.
• Kitchen - eacing east for morning warming sun
• Three bed/study/project rooms. They should be usable as either so the design can work equally well for a variety of scenarios, for eg
  • Family (three bedroom (plus master makes 4))
  • Childless couple (1 guest room and two studies)
  • Single person (computer room, art room, store room)

Random Extra Notes

• Wall-of-glass? Large Round Windows? Stained glass windows?
• Roof angled (ie, rotated, or indeed a different shape) relative to the main structure. Why? For environmental controls through shadow casting at different times of the year. This would need modelling.
• Basement area to maximise space whilst minimising above-ground volume
• Central fireplace with 'heatsink' like fins to radiate warmth through house (esp to tiled/wooden floors?)
  • could this act as a cooler in summer too, if the heatsink was connected to earth to push heat back to the ground?
    • This being the case, can such heat pumps be valved for one-way heat transfer as nescessary?
• Handles on walls/corners/cieling so as to act as a jungle-gym! (or in case the house experiences a localised gravity failure)
• Toilet should have a small cabinet reachable when seated. To be stocked with spare toilet paper, reading material, etc.
• exterior doorknobs with small rings of light to guide the key safe in. (like cars)
• "feature wall" to be a small "mister screen", ala Pink Floyd light show. How small can wiki:intelligent lighting systems get?

Sci fi design?

I am a fan of a lot of sci fi and spec fic, so it feels natural to use some designs from fiction... here are some ideas

• Stargate as feature wall / overhead chandelier
• Monolith as fireplace/surround
• TARDIS as computer rack/cabinet
• Star wars esque windows (the round spiderweb style) for windows.
  • Millenium falcon cockpit as bay window?

Bookmarks

• Fireplace idea: http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectview&upload_id=12504
• shower/tub idea: http://www.yankodesign.com/2009/11/02/super-sexy-bathroom/
• http://www.onionhousehawaii.com/ - this is a cool idea
• http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2009/11/the-next-wireless-frontier-low-power-low-bandwidth.ars - low bandwidth and power for remote controls! :)
• http://www.joeydevilla.com/2007/05/31/staircase-drawers/ - storage in stairs