Designs That Work
Mixed-Humid Climate
The Basic House - Description of the House
The case study house is a 1190 square foot, three bedroom,
one-and-a-half-story single-family detached house with a crawlspace.
The elevation drawing on the previous page shows the front elevation of
the prototype project, which was designed for a community in Virginia.
The ground floor has two entrances: one from the large porch at the
front of the house, and the second into a back hallway behind the kitchen.
All of the essential rooms in the house are located on the ground floor
making a conversion to a fully accessible home possible. At the front of
the house, the dining area and living room are discretely separated
visually by the main structural support for the second floor, creating a
much larger space in an otherwise compact plan.
Figure 2: Mixed-Humid floor plans (Right: Ground Floor, Left: Second
Floor, crawlspace not shown)
The back wall of the hall closet serves
as a vertical chase for the plumbing for the bathroom and ductwork for the
bedrooms on the second floor. The piping and ductwork is kept to a
minimum, reducing energy use and minimizing the number of bulkheads in the
living space.
The full crawlspace is planned to accommodate the mechanical systems
and provide storage. The clothes washer and dryer are located at the foot
of the stairs. (The crawlspace layout can be examined on drawing A-1 of
the attached drawing set.)
On the second floor, the drawings show a second bathroom off the
hallway at the top of the stairs and two bedrooms to the front and back of
the house. Since all of the mechanical systems are located downstairs and
all of the insulation is located outside of the framing, the ceilings on
this floor may be left open to make the bedrooms feel larger. At both
sides of each bedroom, knee walls can be added to provide large closets
for storage. The stairwell and the second floor bathroom are given more
floor area by a dormer on either side of the roof peak.
A high-performance, energy-efficient house depends on rational and
efficient space planning. The Mixed-Humid Climate house plan presented
here is well organized to simplify construction and reduce the materials
and operating costs. However, it does this while still providing the
homeowner with a convenient layout and large, spacious rooms. Attention to
architectural design, it should be noted, is one way of securing a
high-quality, affordable and comfortable home.
The following section discusses how the building enclosure and
mechanical systems have been designed to ensure that this house is
durable, healthy and energy-efficient. |
