{"id":2658,"date":"2018-08-20T18:38:20","date_gmt":"2018-08-20T18:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/?p=2658"},"modified":"2018-08-20T18:38:20","modified_gmt":"2018-08-20T18:38:20","slug":"halftogon-house-concept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/2018\/08\/halftogon-house-concept\/","title":{"rendered":"Halftogon House Concept"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It all comes down to maintenance costs. Having a home is one thing, but making sure that it doesn\u2019t cost you much if at all for years and decades is the goal. I have many examples of friends and family building or renovating houses only to realize that heating that place costs an arm or cooling it down is an issue or that material was great for the first five years but is now deteriorating fast etc.<\/p>\n<p>I designed my home with all that in mind.<\/p>\n<p>So, the best shape in terms of insulation is the circle.<\/p>\n<p> <a title=\"612px-Circle-withsegments_svg\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/haroldito\/29195802277\/in\/album-72157622083972359\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"612px-Circle-withsegments_svg\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1841\/29195802277_93fbd239e0_z.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"303\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>   <\/p>\n<p>You want to minimize external surface area and consequently heat loss and gain. It also keeps building costs to the minimum. Circles are the best for that. Obviously, circles are not practical to build with. 3D printing solves the issue I guess, but it\u2019s still weird to have interiors that are rounded (and with angled furniture, that\u2019s even weirder). Human evolution pushed my brain to feel suspicious of rounded interiors. So we build squares:<\/p>\n<p> <a title=\"Regular_polygon_4_annotated_svg\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/haroldito\/43414706234\/in\/album-72157622083972359\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Regular_polygon_4_annotated_svg\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1817\/43414706234_a19e970554.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>   <\/p>\n<p>Square is the simplest and easiest shape to build with. One big problem is that it\u2019s boring as hell. Kind of brutal. We see that with modern McMansions and those arrangements of cubes. Not that pretty, even with nice landscape. Bigger problem, when you add surface with a cube or two, it adds thermal bridges and surfaces really quickly. Let\u2019s say you want a L-shape house (two rectangles), that\u2019s six external surface areas with some sort of connection between them (thermal bridges).<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not bad per se, but it will have a non-negligible long term cost. What about octagons?<\/p>\n<p> <a title=\"515px-Regular_polygon_8_annotated_svg\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/haroldito\/30265880398\/in\/album-72157622083972359\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"515px-Regular_polygon_8_annotated_svg\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1838\/30265880398_2615fd08aa.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>   <\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the closest shape to a circle, right? You might be surprised to learn that the octagon is <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Octagon_house\">really great for houses<\/a>: 20% more space than a square shape with the same perimeter. The space inside the house is real space and not hallways and corridors: less space waste.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no big problem with that shape. It\u2019s actually pretty awesome in many ways. But! You kind of need to build big to enjoy decent-sized rooms otherwise they\u2019re small and it feels like you\u2019re an ant moving from a small room to another all the time. I\u2019d rather not build big and probably wouldn\u2019t be able to anyway. Big houses are terrible for the environment and just plain bad financial investment: if you have kids, they\u2019ll live around you, not in the room you specifically designed for them. Bet.<\/p>\n<p>So I got the idea of cutting it in half (when in doubt designing something, just cut).<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"515px-Regular_polygon_8_annotated_svg_cut\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/haroldito\/29195802097\/in\/album-72157622083972359\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"515px-Regular_polygon_8_annotated_svg_cut\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1897\/29195802097_61835f1ec7.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#160;<a title=\"515px-Regular_polygon_8_annotated_svg_half\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/haroldito\/43414706024\/in\/album-72157622083972359\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"515px-Regular_polygon_8_annotated_svg_half\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1871\/43414706024_59b0b4d195.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"515px-Regular_polygon_8_annotated_svg_halfcut\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/haroldito\/30265880108\/in\/album-72157622083972359\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"515px-Regular_polygon_8_annotated_svg_halfcut\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1867\/30265880108_ac805b2978.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"299\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>And then rotate it.<\/p>\n<p> <a title=\"515px-Regular_polygon_8_annotated_svg_halfcut_rotated\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/haroldito\/43414705664\/in\/album-72157622083972359\/\" data-flickr-embed=\"true\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"515px-Regular_polygon_8_annotated_svg_halfcut_rotated\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1893\/43414705664_3b996ff3c7.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>  <\/p>\n<p>Ta-da! The bottom is full North (street side). The top, the longest line, is South with large windows all along. East on the left, West on the right. If you center around the bottom left corner, the shape is reminiscent of two hands joining at the wrists. <\/p>\n<p>The shape is sheltering, protecting yet stays open on one side. The green roof will accentuate this idea. The 3D printed concrete technique means the house is uni-body. Zero thermal bridges, bitches. Open floor plan, obviously. Cross ventilation East\/West with cool North, North\/East facing the walls, cooling down the house passively. Sun on the South side for passive heating.<\/p>\n<p>Concrete and glass on the outside pretty much guarantees that nothing will rot or need special attention, ever.<\/p>\n<p>This way I think maintenance and costs would be kept at a minimum all year long while enjoying a serene place to live that regulates its temperature efficiently and naturally. LETS GO <\/p>\n<p>*drops mic*<\/p>\n<p>(next time I\u2019ll show you the floor plan I designed; it\u2019s dope af)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It all comes down to maintenance costs. Having a home is one thing, but making sure that it doesn\u2019t cost you much if at all for years and decades is the goal. I have many examples of friends and family building or renovating houses only to realize that heating that place costs an arm or [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2658"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2659,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2658\/revisions\/2659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/har0ld.com\/playground\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}