At last... the first conceptual drawings of our home!

(Brendan)

Okay, drum roll please.... finally it's time to present and discuss the first conceptual drawings of our home! It's taken a while to work up to this point; I had to make sure I had provided all of the background and set the stage for all that has gone in, and will go into, this project. Before launching into the concepts, I also want to bring us all back to the purpose of this blog. We truly have felt the movement of the Holy Spirit in this endeavor (more posts to come on that), and that includes telling others who may be so led as to design or transform their homes to foster the family as the "domestic Church". Or, perhaps this blog and our family's struggle to live for Christ in everything we do may inspire and support other families in the same struggle. However the Lord wants to use us and this project, we are overjoyed. May the will of the Lord be done in all things, and we totally submit ourselves to whatever God has for us. As our Lord so eloquently explained in the Gospel this past Sunday, we desire only to grow rich in the things that matter to God, and this home must only come to fruition if it plays a part in achieving that end.

Conceptual Design Process

I've posted recently (here and here) about how we provided my brother with some of the information he needed to get started on the conceptual design of the home. These posts were done partly to give enough background information for when we finally got to explaining the first conceptual drawings, but also partly to give insight to the architectural design process for those who may be interested (I know I had no clue before getting into all this). My brother took that information and worked for 3-4 months (remember, he works full-time at an architecture firm, so this is all in addition to his normal work) to create three separate conceptual designs of the home. We told him it was okay to start with just one, but he insisted that he could get three different ones done (and we are so glad he did, as it has added so much to our discussions). I also had told him that he didn't need to fly back here to present the concepts, I was sure we could just talk on the phone and review on the computer, but again, he insisted on flying back to meet in person (and, again, we are so glad he did). There's much more to be gained by meeting in person early in the design process, and in the end this will be a much better home for it.

So, early in July, just 5 weeks ago now, my brother flew out to visit us to present the concepts. They are entitled.... (hushed silence, egregiously long American Idol-like pause).... "Scheme A," "Scheme B," and.... (wait for it)... "Scheme C." (wild, roaring applause, people in the front row screaming and weeping).

Before I get into it, a few random notes:

• The exterior of the home has not really been developed in any way. This includes "materiality," as my brother would say, which is the materials of the exterior of the home.
• We have only one neighborhood covenant that seems to be non-negotiable with the architecture committee of the development (there's a committee of people who are involved in organizing the development and selling the lots, and they must be presented the final drawings for approval -- though none of them are architects, a little weird). This covenant states that at least 30% of the front facade of the home must be made of brick, stone, or other natural materials. There are other covenants, but most you can petition for an exception if it comes up as a problem.
• I am trying to represent my brother's ideas here; all this is his own product that I am attempting to explain in my own words.
  

Because I pride myself in logic, we will devote this first post to Scheme A.

Scheme A

Here we go, let's start with the overall organization diagram first...
This kind of shows the main areas of the home, and their functions. Scheme A is a design that has different "wings" devoted to different functions of the family. "Entertaining Space" should be taken with a grain of salt, since we're not big entertainers. It basically means that's where the formal dining room would be and a sitting area for conversing with guests.

Here's how this scheme looks from above, in a birds-eye view. The home is rotated 90-degrees from the organization diagram (up/down is North/South, click to enlarge)...
Just as a reminder, the main views to the wetland area from where the home will be built are shown below...
And my brother has incorporated those views into the design of the home, schematically depicted here (with the triangles depicting the views)...

Here's the actual floor plan (rotated back 90-degrees, click to enlarge)...
The R1, R2, and R3 labels I added are for three virtual renderings that my brother modeled so that we could get a picture of what it might look like. The first rendering (R1) is if you were standing in the dining room and looking East, across the patio out to the wetland. You can see the chapel further out, and its height or verticality compared to the rest of the home. (Click to enlarge)
The trees, etc. are actual pictures that my brother took in Winter of our land, which he incorporated into the renderings (cool, huh?). Here you also see the floor-to-ceiling windows that we had discussed previously.

The second rendering (R2) is if you were standing in the family room, near the chapel, looking diagonal across the fireplace and patio. (Click to enlarge)
Before I get to the third rendering, you may notice a few big things that we wanted incorporated into the design. The first is having one girls bedroom and one boys bedroom (almost dorm-style bedrooms). We don't think it's the best idea for family interaction, as well as for practice in virtue, for children to have their own bedrooms. I didn't have my own room when I grew up (with my two brothers); I loved sharing an attic with my brothers. Right now we have two boys and two girls, with a desire to grow our family. For this home to be "modular" and accomodate a growing family, this style of bedrooms is almost a necessity, as you have two space that you can constantly reconfigure. So the third rendering (R3) is a view of the boys' bedroom as designed in this scheme... (click to enlarge)...
Here are the side elevations of Scheme A, keeping in mind that the materials and details of the outside of the home have not been developed fully (click to enlarge).
As you can see, this will be a very different looking home, which is what we want. We want there to be some visual cue from the outside that something different is going on in this home. One thing you can notice is a brick wall that both connects with the facade of the home and extends past it to form a couryard area and a retaining wall with steps down to the wetland area. This kind of leads your eyes along sitelines past the home.

Well, there you have Scheme A. This post is getting so long, that I will leave a discussion of what we specifically liked about this scheme, and what we didn't like, for another post. Until that time, you could probably try to guess what we liked and didn't like. Feel free to post a comment on that or anything else!