Datum House 01

This I call the Datum House.  The concept originated from the house being oriented along a line that is a thermal mass wall.  This wall would be heated via the sun and the hearth to heat the house in the winter while being shaded in the summer to act as a cooling device.  All the other spaces would be placed along this datum according to normal criteria (i.e. orientation to the sun, adjacencies to other spaces, etc.). I tried to maximize South facing clerestories as well throughout the entire house to increase natural light and allow for natural ventilation in the summer.

The living room has an interesting envelope to it: the North wall is the concrete datum, with a full South facade of glazing that is shaded by cantilevered louvers  (this would  let in ample light year round yet the hot summer direct sun would be blocked and the low-angled winter sun would heat the datum wall), the roof has several feet of skylight with inlaid P.V. panels that not only block about 80% of the sunlight, but also create a checkered shading pattern on the floor, and of course generate electricity, the rest of the roof would be a green roof.

There is also a sun room (South and West wall and the roof is glazing) on the South West corner of the building. This again, would heat the datum and act very much like a greenhouse for growing plants and vegetables.

I am currently working on a more detailed scale and in SketchUp to progress this design.  It soon came to mind that there still needs to be sleeping quarters and bathrooms...ugh, whoops. :-P I am working on placing both bedrooms on the second floor but it I'm struggling with it... it kind of ruins the elegance of the simplicity of this design. 

I've got to figure out where to put the bedrooms...might just be a single story home.  I will post some more progress as I generate it.