There's an old saying: "A house is only as good as it's
foundation", and that's very true; we'll talk about
that later. My Dad had a saying too. He said that my problem was
that I like to start on the top and work down. And he's right so let's
let's talk about roofs first :-)
I never liked conventional roofs. They're great at keeping rain
off your head but do very little for the living space.
Buckminster Fuller's geodesic dome becomes a roof, a ceiling and
a wall. It's a synergistic method of doing more with less.
Hexagonal housing lends itself to domelike application within
the framework of more conventional building materials and
methods. Very little living space is wasted under the type of
roof that I am proposing.
Another nice feature of hexagonal housing is that it may be
easily joined to A-frames in a manner suitable for harvesting
and storing solar energy. Remember A-frames? You can still find
them on mountain tops and other areas far off the beaten
path. Their ease of construction and economic use of
construction materials has appeal. Outside they have an exciting
angular look, but inside the accommodations have always left me
with a cramped feeling.
HEX-A-FRAME SOLAR ROOF
If we join a hexagonal roof to an A-frame roof we can get a
shape that looks something like this.
The solar collection area
for the hexagonal part of the design for this house is over 250
square feet. A conventional collector covers an area of less than 30
square feet at a cost of $3,000 ($100/sq ft) An integrated
collector system like the one on this roof would be built on
site and cost much less than $25,000... say $5,000. But how
is this possible??? Good question. For now let's just say three
words...ferrocement and tedlar glazing.
The collection area for the A-frame part is over 500 square
feet. The area could be used for additional heat collection
but in this application it is used to grow plants in a 512
square foot third-floor solar greenhouse.
SECOND FLOOR
The hexagonal walls are 16 feet wide and 32 feet from point to
point. The A-frame part is 16'x 32' The total second floor
living area is about 1300 square feet. There are four bedrooms and a
full bath. Notice the expanse and shape of the master bedroom
with all the windows that face south. You may like to fool
around with hexagonal living space designs. They're lots of fun
to work out and even more fun to live in. Buckminster Fuller
once said..."We tend to become like the space we live in." What
do you think?
FIRST FLOOR
Notice the shape of the kitchen, dining room and living room. Do
you think they are big enough? Too big? To the right of the
entry way is an area for a workshop with lots of south-facing
windows. Just think what a pleasure it would be to work in there
on a sunny day in January.
BASEMENT
The basement is lined with three inches of blueboard insulation
and protected on the surface with a thin film of ferrocement. The
hexagonal section contains an array of 55 gallon drums filled
with water for heat storage. Heat is transferred to the drums
via a heat transfer system located in the floor of the basement.
The drums may be added or removed or replaced as needed. A
cabinet and shelf may be constructed around them if a finished
basement is desired. I know one thousand gallons of hot water
should get you through a lot of cold nights, and I also know
that you'll discover great new living arrangements in hexagonal
space. Please
E-mail and let me know what you come up with.
SOLAR HEATING SYSTEM
This a simplified schematic of the solar heating and storage
system. Notice that cement is used to transfer heat to the drum
of water.
THREE STORY SOLAR HEATED HEX-A-FRAME
Well this is what a three story, four bedroom, solar heated
hex-a-frame with a workshop, full basement, full bath, and front
porch might look. Please excuse the crudeness of my AutoCAD
renderings. I'm presently working on a simpler, smaller, more
cost effective model that I hope to upload in a few weeks. Love
to hear from you. It's no fun working in a vaccuum unless of
course you're a spaceman so please
E-mail me
