Making plans

Things are looking surprisingly doable with this piece of land. I've been cranking out lots of thoughts for the past few weeks, discarding many, and forming the remaining ones into somewhat of a plan. This piece of land is actually supporting many of of the things I had speculated upon in earlier postings, and you will see that these plans incorporate those concepts, as well as many others.

The driveway is naturally at a much lower grade than the land. This works nicely with an earth sheltered design

I think an elevation like this could use space very efficiently, maximize solar benefits from the south facing windows while leaving some south facing roof for hot water and maybe photovoltaic. The north portion of the house will be primarily stairs, storage, & baths.

These windows are just stand ins, but the idea is that the south facade will be covered in windows.

I am working with an engineer to revise this plan moving the house closer to the road to cut costs.

A design like this probably requires a lot of concrete construction, so I'm looking into ICFs. I'm also still trying to come up with a way to shade the main level windows from the summer sun. I would love to hear any critique and suggestions in the comments.

Two faced

I scribbled out a little sketch showing the general concept I'm looking into:


The idea is to find a site which allows for a private but open outdoor area to the south, shielded by the house whose "back" is turned to the road and the north winds.

The glass explains much of the reasoning.
The functions of glass windows/doors...

good	bad
View the beautiful outdoors	Can reveal unsightly things
Provides an entry/exit	Lessens indoor privacy
Allows sunlight inside
Allows in solar heat energy	Heat is sometimes unwanted (summer)
Can be opened for fresh air	Has very poor insulating properties

Each of these "good" functions are amplified many times when used in the pictured setup, while many of the "bad" are mitigated. Therefore, it makes sense to me to almost exclusively place windows on that one side.

Another concept I'm looking in to is placing an earth berm toward the north of the house. Since I'm not concerned with windows on that side, and earth is a readily & freely available material, walling the house with it could add significantly to the insulation and privacy.