eople occasionally come to us with floor plans they've either purchased, had designed professionally, or designed themselves. They have brought in complex custom plans done by architectural firms, basic plans from a home plan company and owner-designed plans ranging from simple sketches to fully developed designs carefully drafted in CAD or even by hand. While this design exercise is often helpful to clarify design ideas and preferences, remaking an existing plan into a SIP Sunlight home is almost always problematic.
Let's look at why.
OWNER-DESIGNED PLANS
 At first blush, designing a home seems easy but, as with many things, good residential design is much more complex and difficult than meets the eye. Many people try to design their own homes and focus simply on the floor plan without much thought about structural issues, the roof design or the appearance of the exterior elevations. Some do alright with basic room relationships, but the resulting exterior elevations are kludgy or ho-hum. Sometimes the general look and feel of the plan is good, but the home is too large or expensive to build. Many haven't considered structural or passive solar issues and most don't know how to design a home that is straight forward to build and minimizes materials waste.
We are put in an uncomfortable position when prospective clients bring in a plan they've designed because they have put a lot of time and energy into it and the plans almost always have "design issues". It's difficult for us to explain to them, at that point, what's wrong with their plan and why we can do it better. It's like telling somebody their baby is ugly! Unless you know a lot about architecture and design homes regularly, it's easy to fall into a design trap because there are many competing priorities and many subtle things to consider. There really and truly is a reason why home design is a profession!
ADAPTING A FRAME PLAN TO SIP CONSTRUCTION
 Designing a home to be built from SIPs is different than designing a conventional home. Roof loads are carried through the structure differently. With a truss roof, the loads are primarily carried on the walls. With a SIP roof, the loads are carried on a ridge beam as well as the walls.
The geometry of a SIP roof is different than a truss roof, and some roof types, such as hip roofs, don't lend themselves to SIP construction. Some plans designed for frame construction can be converted for SIPs but many simply don't work with panels at all.
TURNING A CONVENTIONAL PLAN "GREEN"
 Some people discover us a little too late...sometimes just after completing plans for a conventional home. They learn about passive solar and green design and request that we convert their conventional plan into a green one. While green finishes can always be chosen, changing the design to green is usually either difficult or impossible.
Initial conditions dictate a lot about the outcome of a design. If the design focus isn't on day lighting or solar heating, the resulting design can have improper orientation to the sun. Sure, it's usually possible to add a couple south windows or eliminate north ones, but into which rooms will the sun then shine?
Really good, integrated passive solar, green design is the result of making it a priority from the beginning. Like trying to adapt a conventional plan for SIPs, taking a conventional plan and turning it into a solar home is a bit like taking a duck and turning it into a cat. They both have two eyes and a tail, but there are a lot of differences. There is a world of difference in the quality of a design that has been planned to be solar and built with SIPs from the beginning.
CHOOSING THE SUNLIGHT OPTION
 If you have decided that you would like a Sunlight home and you have a plan that you like, the approach that will give you the best result is to work with us to identify the design features you like about your plan so that we can incorporate those concepts into the design of your Sunlight home. Our goal is to design your home WITH you to fit your own design needs, your building site and your building budget. You will have a tremendous amount of input and the final decisions will be yours, but we will guide you through the process to ensure a professional result.
With the use of CAD, drafting new plans isn't nearly as time consuming (and expensive) as it was in the days when they were drawn by hand. Designing a home that effectively addresses the issues of function, aesthetics, structure, solar orientation, topography, green building concepts, size and budget is difficult enough, but to add to this the limitations of working within an existing plan can turn a normally challenging project into an impossible one.
People who choose to build a Sunlight home do so primarily to take advantage of our design skills and process. If you are committed to using a plan that you already have, you have passed the point where we can add the most value to your project. In this case, simply going to a drafting service, and then to a structural engineer might be your best bet.
USING YOUR OWN DESIGN
If you have designed your own plan and are wondering if you should use it, answering these questions might help you decide. If you are happy with your answers to these questions, there's a good chance that your design will be a success:
• Is the home structurally sound?
• Do the rooms flow easily and logically from one to the next?
• Do the rooms flow logically from public spaces to private places?
• Do you have convenient and pleasant access from indoors to out?
• Is there ample day lighting through windows correctly oriented to the sun's path?
• Do the rooms function well for the activities that take place there?
• Is the plan in alignment with your personal values?
• Does the design reflect your individual personality?
• Is the home pleasing to look at both inside and out from every angle?
• Is the entry obvious to the first time visitor?
• Does the home feel inviting and does it feel good?
• Are the rooms in "human scale"?
• Is the home oriented on the land so it can benefit from passive and active solar according to your specific climate?
• Will the construction of the home hit the target budget?
• Is the roof structurally adequate for wind and snow loads?
• Does the roof fit the style of the home and is it straight forward to build?
• Is the home designed for minimal waste of building materials by considering standard lengths and sizes of lumber, plywood, etc?
• Is it designed to be built efficiently and without funky details that complicate the structure and decrease predictability (and increase building costs)?
• Are the outdoor spaces integrated with the design and oriented for optimum sun, shade, privacy and function?
These issues are just some of the ones we address when designing our homes. Deciding whether to use your own plan or go with a professional design is a fork in the road. It's our belief that the design will make or break your project and we offer these suggestions to help you decide the best approach for you.
So what CAN you do to get prepared for the design phase of your new home project? Click on this arrow to find out!  |
