Inga's House/DesignSpecifications
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Ingas Design Specifications: A small house in a natural setting using local natural products
I would like to use local bricks that we produce on site as much as possible, including for the floor. On the floor we probably need special finish on the bricks. And if at all possible I would like the roof to be a dome. Nice to have would be a round window on top of the dome (but that may be technically challenging).
The house should be 45-50 m² ( 7 by 7 meters would be ideal) and I like rectangular shape: a cube with a dome! I would like to have a large window facing south or southwest. And that part of the house should be extended with a glassed-in porch (Wintergarten) for growing herbs and flowers in winter and for supplying passive solar heating. I would like the house to be on a gentle slope because of drainage from rain. It should have a small bathroom and a small kitchen.
The outside of the house can't be left raw bricks, so they have to get some kind of finish (in German: Rauhputz). The dome has to be rain tight and smooth, so no drops should be able to collect on it. The window-frames should be wooden (unless they manage to make them from bio-plastics).
Rainwater should be collected from the dome. The roof gutter to collect the water could look like a collar around the "neck" of the dome.
Details of water storage depend on local conditions like precipitation etc. but a storage area could be envisioned underneath the porch.
Around the house I would like to have a small vegetable and flower garden.
All building material and the plans have to be Open Source under a license so that anybody can replicate the house (and we can later repair it)
II. Global Village @ Factor E Farm
The house will be the first in the village. And hopefully all houses that follow will be built with the same or a similar philosophy. So the first house will serve as a showcase of other houses in the village to come.
For waste water I would like to have a Bio-Filter. The waste water in the bio-filter should be extended to build a pond for fish and for swimming.
For heating, cooking, warm water etc. I would like to have solar energy (collectors for heating, warm water) as much as possible, otherwise take electricity from the solar concentrator near the greenhouse (assuming it will be there).