A house to grow old in...

I have been working on a design on and off since last November; it was to be a smallish house with a self-contained walled garden, intended to be friendly to people getting older-- i.e., it's relatively barrier-free, with easy connections to the ground, and, as Wright said, "sans attic, sans basement."  As usual, I dipped into Christopher Alexander's Pattern Language and Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian Houses for inspiration, and after spending a couple of weeks on the initial design, I gradually built it, metaphorically speaking, from the ground up and fit it out as a computer-generated model.  Here are some renderings of the house --


Floor Plan

Site Plan

Note the massive array of solar panels

West Elevation

North Elevation

East Elevation

South Elevations

Interior Views

Entry Porch looking toward courtyard garden

Living Room looking toward garden

Living Room - Piano Alcove

Dining Room looking toward Kitchen

Kitchen

Office/Guest Bedroom

Office - Desk Alcove

Master Bedroom

Master Bedroom - Sitting Alcove

Guest Bath

Master Bath (dappled light effect unintended)

Walk-through videos, Updated 4.7.12 
(Please ignore the funny, cardboard-like vegetation.)

Exterior

Interior

Crimson Azaleas

Crimson Azaleas

Welcome you to the house

& adorn the table

While white and pale pink flowering dogwoods have graced most of the yards in our neighborhood, ours is distinguished from the rest by some striking crimson azalea shrubs planted strategically in the front yard--leading one from the entry paths to the front door steps.  We were surprised last spring to see the many different plants which bloomed in our yard after the harsh winter but we don't recall having seen these showy crimson azaleas.  At first we weren't sure what these flowers were; they don't look much like the large azaleas in various colors which we were accustomed to see in Florida and only after looking at them at close range did we see the resemblance.  There are still quite a few shrubs and trees that have not filled out yet and we expect to see many more late bloomers in the coming days and weeks.  What a                                                delightful season this spring promises to be!