Round House with Elliptical Rooms

Very different – impractical with traditional framing, but very doable using curved bin sections – graceful and memorable. Ideal for a timeshare or vacation home, it would also make a nurturing year round homel. The rooms created are well-proportioned and, for the lack of a better term, sensuous. The shorter dimension is conducive to the distance needed for intimate conversation while the long dimension gives the sense of a generous space. The circulation flows as do the walls of the spaces. There is the option for a sleeping porch/observation tower above an attic. The tower space also acts as a heat stack in summer to keep the first floor cool. The plan can be easily scaled; it was first designed as a 39 ft dia. two story plan. The 30 ft. dia. two-story plan encompasses 1412 sq.ft. The 1 1/2 story, 30 ft. dia.plan would be about 1060 sq. ft.

The basis of the design components is to put a grain bin inside a grain bin and insulate the space between them with foam. This makes the structure self-supporting, self-framing (no studs in the outside walls), thermally and acoustically broken (super-high performance), and maintenance free for fifty plus years. The shell is completely recyclable, can be built without concrete, added siding or added roofing. They can be built without drywall on the interior. The structures can be relocated and reconfigured easily. They are very strong and greatly resist wind storms of all types, earthquakes, floods and can be quickly fitted to be protected from forest fires. They have very little job site waste (pre-engineered). In general, for this building system, curved cabinets are not needed; install standard cabinets in a segmented fashion and put a curved counter top on them.

Don't want to use foam insulation or too far from an installer? You can also build these as straw bale lined or rammed earth. For the bale you need at least a three foot larger diameter outer bin and it is imperative that you install a continuously sealed thermal break on the inside of the bin (minimum 1” rigid insulation board with aluminum taped joints for the mid west, 2” thick for farther north). For the rammed earth you will need a 3 to 6 ft larger diameter bin for the outer bin depending on the thermal performance needed/desired.

Floor Plans

Mark is offering 9 hours (for the 2-story version) or 6 hours (for the 1-story version) of consulting time (starting from the point of contact) with the basic cost of this plan, and this can be done before you receive the plans so that it is possible to have some custom alterations made. With this offer you can get custom plans for the price of ordinary stock plans! The system is versatile, flexible and often interchangeable between designs, so that you can mix and match; please review other plans offered for amenities and features you may want to include in your design. You can find Mark's other plans listed under his biography.

All designs depicted are the exclusive property of Architecture By Synthesis and are copyright protected.

Description	Price	Add to Shopping Cart
One Story with Top Porch Digital PDF	$1050
Two Story Digital PDF	$1400
3 Sets of 11"x17" Prints (only available with the purchase of above)	$20
Extra Set of Prints	$5 each

These plans include all plans, sections, elevations, details, etc. that are appropriate for this plan package.

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