Re-Learning Geometry…

Whew… yesterday was great. I learned how to mark a site with the footprint of a house. There were so many things about a house that I had never considered before. It’s relationship to the surrounding countryside, the tree line, the sun, available shade and prevailing winds.

Once that was figured out… it was a matter of understanding what the most important activities were in a house. For me, it was lounging… of course. My favorite activity, for those that don’t know me well, is to sit in a comfy chair and do a bit of nothing. Mmmmm… Gives me goosebumps just thinking about it. 😉

Anyway, since my home idea would be based on lounging, I had to arrange all of the pieces I wanted in my home in such a way that lounging would be the centerpiece… and everything else would supplement it.

Then… after taking measurements of my site and the various natural features around it, I placed my building where I thought it should go. After my 10th revision, I, with the help of one of the instructors, realized that the shape I was working with didn’t do what I really needed it to do… so I played with shape for a bit, until I stumbled upon a parallelogram. Very cool. Now my building concept is an elongated parallelogram jutting out from the side of a hill with a berm protecting it from roadside noise and forming a natural courtyard.

I’ll learn to today if my plan is workable, but even if it isn’t I have learned quite a bit from the process. 🙂