The adobe building I have designed here is an open source design. I intend to build a prototype this summer. If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment or email me at rickspils@excite.com
The
perfect home is an island of serenity...
even
in a troubled world.
A well designed house
should last for generations.
A sustainably designed
house should heat and cool itself – passively.
A completely well thought
out house should be designed to be bulletproof – literally
bulletproof... and flood resistant, and earthquake resistant, and
hurricane force wind resistant.
A wisely designed house
should be made from inexpensive, locally available natural materials
(or with materials that can eventually be recycled).
The
ultimate home design will have a deep empowering connection
with
the environment.
The Functional
Fortress was designed from below ground up – to be sturdy,
safe, energy self sufficient, low maintenance, and sustainably made.
…...........................Functional
Fortress drawing to be added later...........................
All life gets
everything it needs from the Earth and the Sky.
The life that
does this best owns the future.
The Functional
Fortress was designed to get everything we need from the Earth
and the Sky – to create your island of serenity.
Below
the Functional Fortress floors:
Temperatures
just a few feet below the surface of the Earth approach a constant 57
degrees F. A floor intimately connected thermally to subsurface Earth
will be cooler in the Summer and warmer during Winter. This physical
state has inspired people to build underground and earth-bermed
houses. They work great. But one does not have to bury
their home to (passively) heat and cool it from the thermal mass of
the Earth.
The Functional
Fortress was designed to inexpensively insulate a tunnel to
the temperatures of the depths. A mixture of perlite
and scoria is
buried in a 5 foot deep trench around the base of the building –
forming a thermal “moat.” Perlite is an excellent insulator and
scoria has many voids for the perlite to fill. Scoria is also
structurally sound. This mix is up to 3 feet thick, creating a tunnel
of thermal insulation isolating earth temps at the surface from earth
temps beneath the building. Therefore, in the Summer, heat will sink
into the floor. And in the Winter, heat will source from deep within
the Earth.
The Bombproof Adobe walls:
The walls of
the Functional Fortress perform more
functions than McMansion walls. The most important of these functions
is to last – up to hundreds of years... While of
course, being a desirable home for as long as the building lasts.
Adobe structures have lasted for up to 800 years – and when well
maintained, still look great. Moreover; when designed right, adobe is
downright practical.
One of the
primary features the Functional Fortress
walls have is that they store thermal energy. (Most stick built and
SIP homes miss out on this feature entirely.)
Actually, the
ideal wall should have two thermal skins; an external
skin to insulate, and an internal skin to store thermal energy. This
way, the temperature fluctuations from day to night can be dampened
inside the house while the temperature fluctuations outdoors can be
ignored. Of course; if you're going to store thermal energy, you need
thermal mass. Adobe is an excellent inexpensive candidate for thermal
mass material.
Adobe
construction has historically been very labor intensive. One had to
make all of the bricks before they could even get started on the
building. But that isn't necessary anymore.
Adobe doesn't
have to be made into bricks. Much labor can be saved by stuffing
adobe into sacks and allowing them to dry in place. This
“super-adobe” has shown itself
quite strong – and even more stable than traditional homes in
earthquakes. A recent design improvement; “hyper-adobe”
(see picture) utilizes open mesh tubes – which allows a better bond
between the “sacks” – which makes the adobe wall even stronger.
But even this design can be improved upon. Bombproof
Adobe walls are designed with two rows of 12 inch thick
hyper-adobe in steel
mesh tubes, reinforced with MgO
cement, steel rebar, and fiberglass
– on a conventional reinforced concrete foundation. This makes the
Functional Fortress adobe walls
literally bomb
force resistant (of course, the windows and doors won't be –
but that can be designed around).
Adobe is a
practical and adaptable building material. Mixed with MgO
cement, it is water resistant. It can even be modified, with
naturally occurring materials, to be used as an insulating layer.
Mixed with pumice or perlite,
12 inches of adobe can provide as much as R-30 insulation.
But what's
really special about adobe is that it's just hardened
dirt... you know; rock. It's not out of place in nature.
And, of course,
24 inches of rock can stop most bullets.
And, of course,
rock is fire resistant.
And by the way,
if it floods, there is no drywall or wood to get wet. Just mop the
Functional Fortress out, and you're
ready for the next flood.
The
Functional Fortress SIP roof:
The final
primary component of the integrated system is the roof. The ideal
roof is light and strong. (There isn't enough rainwater here in the
high deserts for turf on the roof.)
Stainless
steel SIP (Structural Insulated Panels) with polyurethane
insulation are the lightest, strongest, least flammable, longest
lasting, VOC safest, and best insulating option for ultimate
durability. Steel SIP panels have withstood 140 mile an hour
hurricane force winds with only minor damage.
On a roof;
light, strong, and thermally insulating qualities are best
accomplished with materials that can be recycled. (Besides; massive
adobe roofs have a history of occasionally collapsing on their
inhabitants.)
Structurally,
the Functional Fortress roof is
designed to stand on its own. It could even be bolted together as a
shade, without walls. There are two reasons for this. First, if the
roof stands on its own, there are no structural requirements for the
adobe walls to meet to hold up the roof. Second, the steel vertical
I-beams will help strengthen the adobe walls.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
ideal fortress only keeps out what you don't want.
Though
efficient, the Functional Fortress is
not a super-efficient home – by design. Homes need to breath,
because those who live in homes need to breath.
- In Summer, vents low on the North side of the house inhale cool shaded air – and vents at the top of the roof exhale hot air.
- In Winter, a solar hot air collector heats outside air and vents it into the house. The fresh air intake is at the bottom of the collector. As the air heats, it rises, and pushes air into the house – with or without a fan. On the other side of the house, the room temperature air is vented to the outdoors – after it is ducted under the porch to melt ice.
Of course, the
Functional Fortress is mounted with PV
solar modules to generate electric power for the homeowners.
And, of course,
the Functional Fortress is passively
solar heated. A row of windows on the South facing wall will bring in
sunlight and heat in the Winter. The South eave of the roof will
shade these windows in the Summer. On top of that, at the crest of
the roof is a row of windows facing Southward. Light from these upper
windows will heat the back wall. These upper windows are inset
beneath the North facing roof so that they too will be shaded by the
roof in the Summer.
Again, what
makes passive solar heating so special with the Functional
Fortress is the huge thermal mass in the interior walls. The
massive twelve inch thick adobe interior walls will store solar heat
all night – and in the summer, cool a building all day.
The roof
crest cooling vents:
The row of roof
mounted passive solar windows aren't just to let sunlight in. They
are designed to adapt to outside temperatures. In the Summer, there
are automatic vents just above the windows that open during the day
to vent out hot air.
In the Winter,
there are insulating panels that cover the insides of the windows at
night to keep warmth from escaping.
The windows
work together with ceiling fans to blow warm air out in the Summer –
or down towards inhabitants in the Winter.
Actively
controlled motorized vents and thermal barriers will significantly
increase the home's efficiency and reduce the need for human
oversight. However, the vents on the lower North walls will only
require passive controls.
The North
window/ cooling vents:
During the Summer, the
self-functioning automatic hinge (often used on greenhouses) on the
exterior vent is temperature sensitive to ventilate during the summer
days and close automatically at night. Therefore, the interior
windows can be left open all summer (with a bug screen).
In the winter, the lower
vents on the North side of the building can be completely closed off
by disconnecting the hinges (unscrewing an adjuster). And solid foam
insulation can be placed between the window and the vent. In this
configuration, the lower widows will function as a well insulated
part of the wall in winter.
This
window/vent design only requires one to set up the windows twice a
year – once in the Spring, once in the Fall.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sometimes,
the safest fortress doesn't look like a fortress.
With all of the
design innovations, one might be led to believe that the Functional
Fortress would look significantly different from homes one
might find on the market today. Not really.
The bags/tubes
that are filled with adobe can be made to look a lot like logs on a
log home. And if the builder wants to fill in the rounded shapes with
stucco, the walls will just look stuccoed.
The windows and
doors will have adobe arches above them (a necessary characteristic
of adobe construction).
But, from a
distance, if you didn't know the design; you wouldn't notice it
standing out.
When you would
notice the big difference of the Functional
Fortress would be when you enter the home. The walls are two
feet thick!
On the inside;
the look can be much like traditional adobe homes – or the
homeowner can create their own look.
There are
design constraints that limit the shapes of the Functional
Fortress. A builder cannot just throw one up in any shape or
oriented in any direction like most homes today. But when you think
about it; that's a sign. That is a sign that the design has been
optimized to get the most from the sun.
The Functional
Fortress has been optimized for sustainability, durability,
economy, and low maintenance comfort for the inhabitants. On the
other hand; McMansions are designed to maximize quick profits for the
builder.
It's
time to rethink why we build.
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