eco-friendly universal designed home: the indoor great sunroom
Humble home.
Actually this is our family great room -a passive sunroom on the northern prairies in a midsized city. My beginnings -my thesis built - in a time of great environmental innovation and progression before good access to many choices of materials and during a shortage of trades. Still on time and on budget!
My northern clients suggested I show a home with materials available to the northerners at a reasonable cost. This is a humble home.
This 1998 urban country home is a passive solar Universal Designed home. It was a thesis actually successfully built by Northridge Homes within budget and on time. This is the great room and a few photos of the master suite. The ceiling is a scissored vault: essential for the active clay soil movement.
The landscaping and cross breezes keep it cool in the summer. Winters are cozy with the sun heating the home until suppertime. Halls are wide and bathrooms accommodate wheelchair use. 3 generous bedrooms are on this level. The kitchen is designed for family cooking together and the space allows for some good dance moves in the kitchen. The outdoors and indoors flow barrier free. The full basement includes a tornado shelter, huge teen suite downstairs, large full bath with enclosed tub, large open living space, media centre and hidden media operation room and large design studio. It is unintentionally feng shui compliant too. The house was fully wired for electronics. The fully landscaped yard features brick driveway and large patio, a parking pad tucked into the shrubbery, fire pit, veggie garden, and xeriscape plantings. The year round compost management was featured in the Prairie Edition of Gardens West.
I miss this home! It was designed to capture the sun and really worked well for our active family life indoors and out.