I’m drawn to modern architecture, and enjoy the juxtaposition of old and new. Essential simplicity set in a backdrop of organic wilderness. Time-tested materials contrasted with fresh, new ones.
Lots of time on house/floor-plan websites looking at floor plans. And even more time on Zillow.com, Houzz.com, Google Images, Dwell.com, Busyboo.com, Archdaily.com, Design-milk.com, Architecturalrecord.com. You get the picture.
Tons of late-night research on how to best deal with the snow through good, simple design, especially the snow on the roof. I arrived at the conclusion that the European “Alp” architecture has a lot of wisdom. A shallow, “cold” roof that keeps the snow on rather than try to shed it. So I targeted a shed roof design -- no valleys, no peaks. Just simple and flat.
Originally, until we had a “break through” on water availability, I was also planning on collecting rain and snow water off the roof. I’ve since abandoned that due to additional costs and water treatment. It’s also experimental, and I don’t (yet) have money to experiment -- remembering that Edison said he hadn’t had 1000’s of failures designing the incandescent light bulb, he’d just discovered 1000’s of ways NOT to do it.
After downloading a copy of Sketchup and learning how to use it, here’s an example of my first fully realized design.
It’s beautiful, inspiring -- and way too big for us to afford.
What to do? Downsize.
Get rid of the great room. Narrower for regular beams to span. Use common, evenly divisible dimensions. Reduce the number of bathrooms. Reduce the glazing so it’s only on the North and South sides. Finally, after many iterations on floor layouts, I arrived at “the plan.” (Coming soon to a blog post near you.)
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