COMMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS
Fundamental Philosophy: “Buildings should be uniquely adapted to individual needs and sites; plans should be loose and fluid to accommodate the subtleties.”
Main Gateways:
The Portal
Main site gated entry with visually exciting displays for the drive through.
Porte Cochere
The Endurance Dwelling entry is a covered drop-off point. Openings for movement to the outside are on all three levels.
Walls must have:
Depth and volume; character accumulates in
Window seats Closets Alcoves
Waist high shelving Built-in seats Display areas
Columns at corners in social spaces
Allow the social spaces to shape the building without undue constraints from purely structural considerations.
Zone the house for:
Floor coverings
Public zones and traffic ways will be surfaced by hard materials
Private, intimate zones will have soft coverings.
In-floor heating
5 hot water tanks
HVAC notes:
Go all the way with air quality
Significant change in air quality requires a whole house system that is self-contained
Filters and fans for complete isolation from outside air
Combine heat pump with in-floor heating – calculate effectiveness
Large ceiling fan in continuous mode
Donut ductwork
Plan a 12” duct that travels underneath the slab, fan TBD
Duct will be exposed (copper) and hang just beneath the ceiling,
Cool air will cascade from openings in copper run, cool air falls to 2nd floor
Air will fall from 2nd floor to 1st floor via floor openings
Lighting:
Uniform lighting
Serves no useful purpose
Destroys the social nature of spaces
Makes people feel disoriented and unbounded
Model interior lighting after real, outside natural lighting; dappled, etc.
Structural:
Materials must be familiar to regular journeymen carpenters. Building the original structure should be simple and understandable. Repairs and re-model should be uncomplicated.
Columns and beams may be enhanced with Shou Sugi Ban, a Japanese fire treatment that preserves and protects well beyond inherent strengths.
Walls should have proper height, alcoves, indentations and display capabilities that can be useful for dwellers. All walls can be embrasure sized, 2’ thick.
Realms:
Northside cold walls
Wine cellar
Pantry
Kitchen
Sleeper wing (Four master suites)
Theater
Library
Warren
Mezzanine (2nd floor)
Atrix
Hierarchy of open spaces:
Physical columns, deep walls, high ceilings are congruent with social spaces that provide activities and attract drifting dwellers to them.
Rooms:
Bedroom complex
Waist high shelves with built-in seats
Windows in 2 walls
Bed alcove
Dressing room
Bathroom
Drift naturally to the outside, on a beautiful path that leads to the courtyard. The courtyard will have multiple openings; pass through and enliven the atmosphere of the courtyard; it is not completely enclosed, create an opening beyond the vision limit.
Traffic patterns:
The Arcade is a promenade around the exterior structure with studied access points.
Interior patterns suggest ways to envision, smell and enjoy the free feeling from moving with plenty of room. The Atrix is a nexus of access points and leads to outside meanderings.
General characteristics:
Forest has existing roads that insulate it completely fro forest fires; and the Fire Station is next door.
Delivery by vehicle to kitchen and suites is easy and of short duration. From garden to kitchen is 90 seconds.
Windows are tall and wide, letting in lots of light, and have window seats with WiFi and work stations. Mixed elevated surfaces and countertops are everywhere.
Ceiling height is related to the length and breadth of different rooms.
Unique quirks:
Carbon sequestering
Leaving all the larger trees in the biosphere to grow large and prosper
Using the smaller trees for wood chips, not burning them or removing them off site
Using glu-lam products for all our posts and beams
By not removing excavation materials from the site we greatly reduce the carbon footprint
20’ repeating grid composed of glulam verticals and beams
Embrasured walls are 2’ in diameter
Beneficial design flux possible
Alcoves / nooks / openings / silled ellipsoids in wide walls
Maintenance and Operations Manual
ADA compliant inside and outside
Heated slab / permanently on ceiling fans / heat pump
Underground cooling system for hot days
Arcade created with Mansard roof’s 10’ drip edge for rain harvesting to footing drain is also a
promenade for the entire perimeter
Nothing in the exterior wall except insulation; wall is 2’ thick
All utilities are confined to a section of an interior riser wall with embedded color-coded instructions
Wirsbo plumbing for domestic service and heated slab, controls also in the riser wall
All suites have 12” solar exhaust fan permanently on, in exterior wall
Gravity operated septic systems
It is in a garden / farm forest format and can be described as the Northwest version of the country farm profile but with architecture driven by local forces. With us form follows function follows force, so our forms of farms are not derived from the seminal country farm.
We live in the Pacific Northwest and our forces are different because we exist between two mountain ranges; it is unusual and calls out force-driven design. This is very different from the typical barn / farm profile and is not traditional in that sense. In every other sense, yes it is traditional.
Moondance is the first of its genre. There will be a high ad valorem for such a product.