Day Lighting—
 Indoor sunlight adds much to the comfort of the home if the right rooms are facing south. If the wrong rooms are face south, the house is dark and gloomy. Alexander suggests placing the most important rooms along the south edge of the building, spreading the building out along the east-west axis. Bedrooms can be on the north, as can the garage and secondary spaces. These are some of the fundamentals of passive solar design as well.
Light On Two Sides Of Every Room—
This is a pattern that we at Sunlight Homes find particularly important. Alexander finds that when people have a choice, they will always gravitate to places that have natural daylight coming in from at least two sides of the room. In designing a home, it's best to keep that in mind.
Half-Hidden Garden—
 Alexander advises that the outdoor space where you spend time needs to be situated in an area of the yard where you are half- hidden and half-exposed. Space that is fully exposed to the street isn't private enough. If it is too far from the street you might not be aware of what's going on there. An outdoor space that offers some privacy and some connection to the neighborhood feels the most comfortable.
These are but a few of Alexander's ideas. His patterns for home design are extensive and he has also extended them to patterns for community design.
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN—
Designing homes that use new materials along with the sun's solar energy, both active and passive, while creating a home that is visually beautiful, functional and comfortable is a lengthy topic. We have extensive information on our sustainable design techniques in the GREEN section of our site. In the BUILD section, we discuss the materials we use that give us the design flexibility we enjoy.
Follow the arrows to learn about the process our customers go through in designing their new custom Sunlight home! |
