The thing about living on a place before you build the final home is learning the environment and climate. There are things we will be able to tell a draftsperson or architect right from the word go to consider in the design, orientation and elevation of the strawbale house on the hill and its angles.
Down here for the shed there are elements we've come to realise will affect us differently through the seasons. The biggest one that comes to mind is the angle of the sun in the Winter. In Summer the sun rises and makes its arc up high over the hill all day long, until it sinks into the west, down by the neighbours' trees and hills. Just this week I came to a realisation about our hill - it's too high in Winter for the sun to reach over for parts of the day! The sun hits the shed and streams in through the windows in the early morning, by mid-morning it has crept behind the hill, peeks out again at about 3pm and from 4 onwards we are left in cool shadow again.
Luckily, we'll be toasty warm with our wood stove and all walls insulated.
Bringing me to the next point. In certain wind conditions, even if it appears to be a still day, we can hear the roar of the trucks on the highway (about 3kms away as the crow flies) as if they were on the next road down from us. Again, an insulated shed means that it can't be heard from inside, but the peace of the valley is certainly broken if one wishes to sup a mug of hot coffee under the trees, on these days!
Learning, always learning. And glad we haven't committed our ideas in strawbale and render just yet...
Down here for the shed there are elements we've come to realise will affect us differently through the seasons. The biggest one that comes to mind is the angle of the sun in the Winter. In Summer the sun rises and makes its arc up high over the hill all day long, until it sinks into the west, down by the neighbours' trees and hills. Just this week I came to a realisation about our hill - it's too high in Winter for the sun to reach over for parts of the day! The sun hits the shed and streams in through the windows in the early morning, by mid-morning it has crept behind the hill, peeks out again at about 3pm and from 4 onwards we are left in cool shadow again.
Luckily, we'll be toasty warm with our wood stove and all walls insulated.
Bringing me to the next point. In certain wind conditions, even if it appears to be a still day, we can hear the roar of the trucks on the highway (about 3kms away as the crow flies) as if they were on the next road down from us. Again, an insulated shed means that it can't be heard from inside, but the peace of the valley is certainly broken if one wishes to sup a mug of hot coffee under the trees, on these days!
Learning, always learning. And glad we haven't committed our ideas in strawbale and render just yet...
Have found the same thing ourselves on our property. We are living in an old farm house and debating how we build on our land.
ReplyDeleteIt is half flat with 2 slopes. One to the east and the other to the south. The south one means it is not really feasible to do a earth ship x straw bale design.
Placing the house affects how we plant at the moment, as we don't want trees to go in where the new driveway will go, or of course, the new house itself.