THE FOUR STANDARD HOME DESIGNS a) Hot or Temperate Climate: Defensive, Suburban,

THE FOUR STANDARD HOME DESIGNS

a) Hot or Temperate Climate:

Defensive, Suburban, Urban

One floor, Double-walled, air-gap or insulated, brick or concrete block, with exterior stucco, interior plaster, in traditional courtyard design, with tall interior facing windows, with interior-facing roof, with downspouts (filtered) feeding central cistern (water pool).

Minimum interior wet-walls, Traditional under-window steam heat, off traditional boiler, off natural-fuel iron stove. Every civilization discovered it. Any man can build it. And it doesn’t get any better than that. Start with one building, add a wing at a time, until you have a donut. Main, kitchen, dining. Wing left bedrooms. Wing right Living Room and Office. Wing Main Entry, Parents/Grandparents Apt (or workshop or shop)

b) Temperate climate

Territorial views. Non-defensive (security through remoteness)

Reverse the Donut. Cross Design. Mix of one and two floors. Maximum External glass. Main house kitchen, living vaulted ceiling. Right arm, entry and storage. Left Arm Dining. head-arm, Upstairs master suite, downstairs Children’s bedrooms.

c) Cold Climate:

Cube. Raise it. (“Medieval Keep design”) Full basement, only half underground, first floor windows > man-height off the ground.

9′ ceilings, tall windows, defensive shutters. Basement storage, main food formal living dining, second bedrooms and family space, third master suite in roof with dormers.

d) Hard Freeze Climate / “modern tents’.

Cottage. Stick houses are cheap, can be insulated like hell, and resist earthquakes. But they are ‘cottages’ not ‘houses’ and certainly not defensible, or durable keeps. And they have no sound dampening or thermal mass.