Axis House
A few tools can help you make a smart decision about the orientation of your home. Obtain a sun path diagram for your site’s location. This will help you determine the orientation of your home by giving a visual of where the sun travels in the sky throughout the day. Make note also of any obstructions surrounding the site (buildings, trees, telephone poles etc.) and potential obstructions (for instance, a vacant lot that could be developed) that might block potential passive solar gain. A wind rose notes the direction and frequency of prevailing winds. The United States Department of Commerce has wind data collected from many airport locations, so you may be able to find one close to your site. This is key in determining the effectiveness of a windmill to help produce electricity. It’s also important to be aware of your predominant sky conditions throughout the year: overcast, clear or partly cloudy. This will become useful knowledge when you’re determining how to light the home’s interior. By taking advantage of natural light, you can reduce your electrical load and your dependency on artificial illumination.
During the winter months, the sun travels low in the sky, allowing the light to enter through south-facing windows and walls. In the summer, when the sun rides higher in the sky, the sunlight strikes the windows at a higher angle and can easily be managed with overhangs. Notice the shadow line that the overhang on this Ontario home provides, and how it helps to block direct solar gain to the upper windows. The west side is often where the most severe heat gain occurs, which can lead to higher cooling costs. This is also where the sun starts to set lower in the sky and glare becomes a bigger issue. By facing a long side of your home to the south and minimizing the exposure to the west, you can let the natural context lend a hand in saving energy.
Both the shape and the construction of your home will greatly influence the heating and cooling requirements. For example, a building in a hot, arid climate experiences a large load from the sun in the summer. If the building is shaped in a way that reduces exposure to the sun — the glass is shaded by a large overhang and the walls are well insulated — the solar gain can be minimized and cooling requirements can be decreased, saving energy. contemporary floor plan by Solterre Design. The best tip for minimizing energy consumption is to orient the home facing south (in the Northern Hemisphere) to capture solar gain in the winter and block solar gain in the summer, as shown in this plan for an off-grid home in Nova Scotia by Solterre Design.
A trellis made of hog wire (a mesh used for farm fencing) runs along the exterior. “When the vines that have been planted grow in, they will provide a nice shade,” says Gast.
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love the facade on the central structure - porch seems to cut tall window bays into shaded windows and unshaded transoms - great for a south-facing wall. Shaded windows prevent hot summer sun from entering living spaces, unshaded transoms allow direct light to warm the top of the room, drawing warm air up off the ground-level.
this home - interior and exterior. Finishes, layout, everything. Palmetto Bluff Cottage.
colors and finishes and porch
this
It's basically an airtight structure, with a ventilation system that's constantly running. A “magic box,” as Pratt calls it, in the attic pulls fresh air in while exchanging heat that stays inside. “Stale air goes out; fresh air comes in. The heat energy of the exhaust air is exchanged with that of the incoming air. The volume of air in the house is refreshed about every two to three hours," Pratt says.
A primary principle of Passive House standards is a compact building form. The goal in a cold climate is to reduce heat loss through the building's shell. It’s simple: Sun shines through the windows, strikes a surface and warms it up. The house then traps that heat inside with a virtually airtight design gained through walls, a roof and even a floor that are superinsulated.
Homes need not parallel the scale of a Gothic cathedral, nor should smaller spaces be perceived as claustrophobic. Twenty-four-foot tall ceilings tend to create more echoes than spatial intimacy. This space comfortably includes a kitchen, an eating area and a living space. A well-conceived open plan that eliminates superfluous space can be the most efficient ingredient of a beautiful home.
ith the rising costs of energy, the depletion of finite resources, and the projected long-term effects of emitting carbon into the atmosphere, using less energy for heating, cooling, ventilating and lighting a house is becoming extremely important. Passive daylighting — designing a house to take advantage of sunlight and minimize the use of artificial lighting — is one step in this direction. A number of external factors, such as adjacent buildings and trees, affect how much sun reaches a house and into particular rooms, but these variables can be controlled by adding windows on two or more sides to even out lighting and reduce glare, getting light into the center of deep plans, borrowing light from one space into another, and filtering sunlight through fixed and movable means to reduce heat gain.
Pictured is the Duncan House in another Chicago suburb, Flossmoor. It included the same elements (linear plan, south-facing windows, roof overhangs) but also exterior "wing walls" with adjustable vertical louvers for cutting down on the late-afternoon sun in the months when overheating of the interior occurred.
The solar house as a unique type: The characteristics they share are linear east-west plans with large, south-facing windows and roof overhangs to block the high summer sun.
Primer on mechanical ventilation: http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/21255556/list/Get-Cleaner-Indoor-Air-Without-Opening-a-Window
What is a house’s respiratory system? A healthy home should have an airtight envelope, or skin, with no air leaks when the windows and doors are closed. There should be a mechanical ventilation system that allows the home to breathe through controlled points. Filters and dehumidifiers can help purify the air filling the home, and a system can even be designed to recover the heat that is expelled with exhaust air (cutting down on heating bills).
"Straw-bale homes humid locations are not a problem. Eaves of the house need to be designed to protect the walls from rain, as with any location. Any humidity produced inside the house would need to be evacuated with mechanical ventilation, again, as with any house." The thermal mass of the straw bales helps to regulate the heating and cooling of the home, reducing the need for AC and maintaining comfortable temperatures year-round.
"Openings in the upper floors allow the interior to act like one big chimney. The pop-up that caps the house has a south-facing window that heats up this zone, helping to draw warm air up and out of the house."
Living without air conditioning is unimaginable for many people, but given the right design, planning and house orientation, it should be possible to live without the need for mechanical cooling by: •Cutting down on direct sunlight in warm months •Drawing warm air out of the interior •Tightening the envelope to keep heat from infiltrating •Designing spaces that keep the air cool in the "occupied zone"
"A home built to the Passive House standard is one that remains comfortable through all seasons without employing an active heating or cooling system... In the summer, we take advantage of shading devices and the high summer sun angle. In this way we can stop the sun from reaching windows, floors, and walls, helping to keep them cool."
"This home's traditional design fits seamlessly within its context, while incorporating straw-bale construction (a great insulator and sustainable system), passive cooling and more."
"Another home on the cutting edge of sustainability and green design also has very traditional architecture. This home includes features such as a passive cooling system (proper shading and the ability to take advantage of natural air movement) and Energy Star compliance (third-party-certified to use 15 percent less energy than allowed by the building and energy code)."
(Comment by B. Dietrich): "There are a number of sites that offer a calculator for determining sun angles and optimal positioning of collectors. Just google "sun angle calculator" or something similar. But I think yours is more of an architectural question. Typically, my preference is to build a 3D model of the project in Sketchup ( http://sketchup.google.com/intl/en/ ) and position the model in Google Earth to study how the sun moves across the project at various times of day and night and throughout the year. I can then adjust the architectural elements to to get the amount of sun and shade I want. A very early study of the sun across the south face of a project is shown in the image."
"This photo is of the home's interior on Dec. 21. In winter, when the sun is lower in the sky, sunlight reaches deep inside to help illuminate and warm the interior."
"This photo is shows how the interior appears on March 21 and Sept. 21 each year. Light from the summer sun enters only the first few feet of the home. It reinforces the architecture by helping to define the primary circulation space and hallway."
"This home is by architect Nathan Kipnis, who has spent the last several decades designing homes that rely on the sun for heating and other power needs. In this home, Nate orients the long face on an east/west axis to make sure that the home gets a lot of sun throughout the day. The design incorporates a deep overhang and pergola to block the sunlight from entering the home in summer, when the sun is higher in the sky."
back porch and bays
butler's pantry
butler's pantry. thinking about this size to comfortably hold a refrigerator.
beautiful butler's pantry.
simple butler's pantry
butler's pantry
butler's pantry
butler's pantry
butler's pantry with fridge and storage and counter space
butler's pantry off kichen - store dry goods, pots and pans, and refrigerator/freezer. keep serving plates and utinsels in island near sink.
similar to this
rear view similar to this (plus dormered roof)
terraced lawn beyond screen porch
this kitchen layout (but flanked with curtain-backed french doors to utility and pantry)
this layout for kitchen
approximately this layout
still love the finishes in this kitchen.
or this layout
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