When one gets older it is almost inevitable that they will end up needing a wheelchair at some point or another.  Once in a wheelchair, they realize how hard it is to get around the house with a couple extra inches of chair on both sides.  It is times like these that you wish you had planned ahead and had a more user-friendly floor plan.

Designers are incorporating wheelchair accessibility more and more into their house plans.  The great thing about wheelchair accessibility is that it really doesn’t stick out.  You can have a wheelchair accessible home that looks just like any other home but it will give you a lot fewer headaches if there is ever a need to be in a wheelchair.  A little long term planning right now will pay off when you do encounter a wheelchair situation.

The Catalina house plan is a good plan to use to learn exactly what you would need in a wheelchair accessible home.  One of the first things you see about this house plan is that there are no stairs.  Stairs in a floor plan mean having to lift the chair up them and carry it down them.  It is really just a lot of unnecessary effort.  Not even the front porch is raised on this plan.  There is zero vertical movement required in this home design.  This floor plan also has open space and wider doors.  It has been said that a wheelchair will need at least 36″ wide doors so you can maneuver through the opening.  With a quick modification of the doorway you can make this house plan work for you.  One idea to help you have a more wheelchair friendly doorway is to have a pocket door installed like the door to the walk in closet in the master suite.

The height difference is also something to take into account when designing a wheelchair accessible house. Counter heights and sink accessibility are two things that are affected by the height of a person sitting in a wheelchair.  There can be other factors so be sure to figure it all out before you start constructing.  The most important thing in wheelchair accessible home design is planning.  Plan ahead and find the house plan that works the best for your situation.

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

Today, we continue our looking at the different categories of house plans that attract a certain groups of people.  When you look for a house plan online there are hundreds of styles to choose from and it can get hard trying to decide what you want.  You may be thinking, “all I want is a house where I can come home and relax, why do I have to pick from so many options?” The Plan Collection has taken care of that and has provided a couple extra house plan options so you can more easily find a house plan that works for you. Yesterday we talked about transitional house plans.  Today we are going to talk about the art of Feng Shui and the application of it in house design.

Feng shui has had lots of criticism over the years and there are a lot of false ideas about Feng Shui.  Feng Shui is all about trying to have positivity in life.  There are many levels of Feng Shui practice in today’s world.  Many people just want a little Feng Shui in their homes to help them relax.  Others are more firm believes in the theology of Feng Shui.  It doesn’t matter at what level of Feng Shui practice you are.  All Feng Shui house plans give you a place to relax and enjoy more of the earth and its elements.

You can practice as much feng shui as you want in a home.  A Feng Shui design is a smaller design with lots of open space.  One of the keys to Feng Shui is being able to have space to move around and with some quick reevaluations of the floor plan any home becomes more Feng Shui.  With the open air feeling you naturally feel more at ease.  The house provides a place for you to get away from the stress of everyday life and relax.  There are certain elements that can add a lot to the Feng Shui feel of a home.  For example, house plan M-2228 has open floor plans and glass walls that give lots of air flow throughout the house.  The plan also has open wall space so you can decorate with all the Feng Shui items you need.

A Feng Shui floor plan is open and allows air flow

There are dozens of Feng Shui house plans that you can choose from at The Plan Collection.  Take some time and find the one that works best for you.

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

Today I found a really cool retaining barrier that is made in Utah.  Muscle Wall is a retaining wall that is made up of 6 ft x 4 ft barriers that can do just about anything when it comes to containing large quantities of water, gas, oil or other substances.  I was amazed at how well the Muscle Wall does it job.  Musclewall.com website had a lot of written information and a few videos about the basic functions and effectiveness of the barricades.  When set up properly, this thing can handle everything you can throw at it.

Muscle Wall is made of low-density polyethylene.  This is an extremely durable material.  The website has one video where water is frozen inside of a barrier and then a guy beats the barrier with a sledge hammer and there is absolutely no shattering or even cracking of the barrier.  Many experiments were carried out by the Utah Water Research Laboratory to test the seepage rate, overflow performance, wave performance, impact performance, and sliding performance of the Muscle Wall.  All tests confirmed the strong construction of the wall.  It had a seepage rate of 0.0013 inches/feet/minute.  There were no seen effects from the overturn performance, wave performance and impact performance tests.  Those tests proved that the barricade will not be affected if it is to hold water to the top and waves and impacts will not cause separation of the pieces.

The barricades come completely equipped on their own special trailer.  The trailer can hold up to 72 barricade sections and has its own hose and pump.  This would be work for so many purposes.  You could use it in construction, farm work, flood prevention, pretty much you name it the Muscle Wall can do it.

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

Hold on to your seats, because I’ve got some pretty amazing news about green building technology. It all started out earlier this afternoon when I was browsing around on BuildingGreen.com. They have a well-organized site offering lots of information about anything from green building products to new water-saving techniques. Before long, I found a news article with a link to AskNature.org (another very informative website), and that is where my tangent began.

AskNature.org kept alluding to biomimicry, and since I had never heard of biomimicry before, I decided to do a little further investigation. Biomimicry, it seems, is the process of mimicking nature’s solutions to solve human problems. For example, scientists are using sophisticated computer programs to mimic bone structures in order to make cars up to 30% lighter, but still maintaining the same crash-test ratings.

I found information about many different biomimicry projects; everything from butterfly-wing pants to photovoltaic paint. But by far, the most far-fetched and interesting idea I read about was BIOSTEEL®. Now, this isn’t exactly cutting-edge news. In fact, my information is sadly outdated. But sometime around 2001-02, Nexia Biotechnologies Inc., from Montreal, ”produced” a transgenic goat with the capability of producing synthetic spider silk. I know what you’re thinking, and let me tell you, it gets even crazier!

Willow, as they called her, was created when Nexia scientists took a single goat embryo and injected it with special sequences of spider genes. The modified embryo was then inserted into a surrogate mother goat and – POOF! – Willow, the spider-goat!

Now Willow can’t climb walls or fight crime, but her modified mammary glands do produce long-chain amino acids that are almost identical to spider silk. So with a little processing, Nexia was able to transform Willow’s mutant goat milk into a synthetic spider silk (BIOSTEEL®) that exhibited a tensile strength triple that of steel.

The production of BIOSTEEL® was a very promising concept. Everyone seemed to be holding their breath. The medical field, the building industry, even the military; they all wanted it to go somewhere. Unfortunately, BIOSTEEL® and Nexia fizzled-out shortly thereafter. I’m not sure what has become of Willow the spider-goat, but the whole ordeal sure made my afternoon a lot more interesting.

Now that I’ve given a brief summary about the rise and fall of one of Canada’s premier biotechnology firms, I have to bring my tangent back to the beginning. Today’s builders and architects can learn a lot from nature. The natural world that we see around us has had billions of years of research and development, and the more we follow the patterns of nature, the more efficient our designs will be. I don’t think we should be trying to re-engineer goats, but I do think that we can benefit from nature’s expertise.

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

I’m sorry that it has taken me so long to write a new post, but I hope that you’ll forgive me. For those of you who remember taking final exams at the end of the semester at college, you’ll understand when I say that I just didn’t have time.

That being said, I did find something interesting the other day. Behold Vetrazzo®, the world’s foremost manufacturer of recycled-material countertops.

Vetrazzo was invented in 1996 by a passionate glass scientist in California’s Bay area. The main premise behind Vetrazzo is that it uses recycled glass and an eco-friendly bonding agent to create a hard material that is comparable to granite or marble in use and function. Each slab of Vetrazzo is unique. Recycled glass from used bottles, windshields, and even decommissioned traffic lights makes up 85% of each slab. The bonding cement even uses fly ash (a by-product from coal-burning power plants).

Since its invention almost 13 years ago, Vetrazzo has been far more successful than anyone could have expected. Even more important than the popularity and success, however, is Vetrazzo’s committment to the environment.

You see, not only is Vetrazzo made mostly from recycled materials; it is manufactured in a recycled Ford Automotive plant, Workers are all paid a living wage (no exploitation), and all material and labor comes entirely from the USA, making Vetrazzo a truly sustainable organization. It really  seems like they’re trying to make the world a better place for you and me.

Unfortunately, because Vetrazzo is located in the California Bay area, I haven’t been able to see any of it personally. I understand they have distributors located all over the country; I just haven’t had the chance to look into it yet. At any rate, if you are building a new home or remodeling an old one, you should really look into Vetrazzo®. Each slab is a luxurious work of art that can help make everyone a little better off. You should Check it Out!

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

Green architecture has so many benefits but never seems to catch on that well. For years, people have known that we can build with materials that not only stop environmental damage but enhance life. It may seem as only a few independent people are what’s driving green building from being extinct.

I was very pleased to find the University of Pennsylvania has stepped up and is leading the nation in sustainable campuses. I found on their website an article about the newly dedicated Kings Court English College House. When constructing the building they decided the usually rubber roof covering would not do. Instead, they produced a green roof with a mix of grasses, sedum and mosses. Not only did this beautify the area but they have a longer lasting roof and a reduction in temperature control costs in the building.

I was impressed with the desire to design with green factors in mind. I was even more excited to find that this wasn’t all they were doing in this area. The article showed a long list of procedures taken to have environmental sustainability. These actions had not gone undetected either. The University was one of eight organizations honored by the state of Pennsylvania for green-power purchases. They were also recognized as one of the top 15 colleges in North America in sustainability.

It will take large organizations like this to bring green architecture to the masses. The fact that larger universities are accepting and improving the process of this design is amazing. Hopefully, with help from schools and other institutions, we will be able to cut down everyone’s carbon footprint.

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

The Chicago Museum of Science and Industry completed construction on what is being called “Chicago’s greenest home.” The modular home with 2500 square feet mixes both elements of the world gone by and future space-age technology.

Smart Home has furniture made of everything from crates and barrels to a dining room table fashioned out of a fallen Ask Tree. The architect, Michelle Kaufman, designed the home with large windows and motorized skylights to maximize temperature control. A garden on the roof of the home keeps the home cool and absorbs rainwater. Water use is cut to a minimum with low-flow appliances. A nontoxic collection of rugs and bedding complement an air filtration system.

But, not only is this home a just another green home. It has technological advances seen in few normally constructed homes. The home uses the motorized skylights and and lighting to reduce your energy consumption. The PC driven system of the home has many great features that will leave you with lots of extra time and peace of mind.

If your in the Chicago area I would recommend checking out this house. You will learn about both green architecture and smart houses in one location.

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

I wrote about using old shipping containers to build houses with a few weeks ago. Well here is a great example of a proposed project in Detroit. Designed by architect Steven Flum, in partnership with developer Leslie Horn, the project is waiting city approval. Once received, the condos will end up near Wayne State University.

Other highlights of the story include a 25% cost-to-build savings over condos of similar size and quality, complete re-use of old shipping containers (no new ones), and that cool NASA developed paint insulator.

I was looking for a good example to show how something like this can actually look nice. The condos show an aesthetic that has obviously moved beyond container while remaining refreshingly industrial. For more photos of this kind of construction, visit Container City.

Via Jetson Green and Freep

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

We’ve featured Michelle Kauffman before. Her work is pleasing to me, so I thought I’d share some vidoes. These are inside looks into some of her homes, the Glidehouse and the Sunset Breezehouse. Enjoy…

MKD video 1

MKD video 2

MKD video 3

thanks michelle and preston

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.

Agilewaves Inc, a California based IT company, has created the Resource Monitor (shown above) which displays a building’s performance. Their first client, Nueva School in Hillsborough, CA built green, incorporating such things as solar-electric panels and a living roof. When they wanted to measure the performance, they went to Agilewaves.

Keeping track of performance has long been an important practice in any management setting. It strikes me odd that we’re just barely getting building owners interested in moitoring their energy consumption. I liken it to a blazer I used to drive. This model had a monitor that showed me my mpg on an instant. Watching it go up and down affected the way I drove. Not only did I drive to conserve gas, but it resulted in safer practices that I still use today. I think the tech is pretty awesome and has the potential to instigate many changes. Agilewaves CEO, Peter Sharer, recently wrote “Conservation is the low-hanging fruit of resource sustainability. The only investment it requires is that we become more aware of the impact of our unconscious habits”. Obviously Sharer and Nueva School had a connection. C-Net reported “the school said the application will be valuable to facilities managers and to students as an educational tool.”

Look for this technology to be integrated in home network systems and power strips. There are already a few models out there from GE and P3 International.

via C-Net

HousePlans.Info: The latest trends, observations and opinions on all things related to house plans, home design and home building.