Every 3 to 4 years I start again designing the house I would build if I had the time and where with all (one word or three?). These designs rarely leave my head and vary from a round house centred around an open fire and chimney to a long house built into a hill and currently a square house not dissimilar from the one I live in but designed to be warm and dry. One day I plan to build these houses either in Sketchup or in Second Life, if not in real life....
For the next time I change the design, here is some inspiration:
http://www.thecoolhunter.net/architecture/ though the extensive use of glass in some buildings leaves me cold, in every sense.
http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~liz/design.html passive solar design
How buildings work by Edward Allen
http://www.solaleya.com/
6 comments:
Phoebe I'd definitely recommend Sketchup for this. I did a 'vizualization' of my sister's new extension last year before it was built and it gave her family a great sense of how it was going to look. I've also done models of the Clarion Hotel and King John's castle in Limerick.
If you do go ahead with this please consider sharing your models on Google's 3D warehouse so we can possibly build on each others work and share thoughts and ideas, etc.
Ultimately I'm considering setting up my own Opensim server (Opensim is the opensource version of Second Life) so that I can not only import building models but also landscaping, etc, and invite friends to visit and leave their feedback, etc.
Please feel free to email me to discuss these ideas further - eirepreneur at gmail dot com
Oh, I forgot to add that one of the advantages to Opensim is that you can use one of the most popular Opensim clients/viewers -RealXtend - to import Sketchup models into an Opensim world - http://peterquirk.wordpress.com/2008/07/15/taking-sketchup-models-into-realxtend/
I don't mean to hog the comments Phoebe, but just to let you know that I've writte about this idea now on my new blog for the exploration of virtual worlds and telepresence (link in signature). I think we can bring Barn Raising to the virtual world :-)
Had a quick look at opensim and that certainly looks the way to go. Thatnks for those pointers. I see there is a Sketchup for Dummies so might get that and spend a autumn/winter weekend playing at architect! I love the virtual barn raising concept - maybe this is something for barcamp cork?
Sure, sounds like a great idea for Barcamp Cork Phoebe, and for next year's 3Dcamp in Limerick too :-)
PS. Sorry to hear about your grandfather. But what a great age.
By coincidence I'm just after reading this* article in BusinessWeek which I think you'll find very interesting - "So Brouchoud and partner Kandy Jentz-Brouchoud began meeting with clients in Second Life, where they can not only view plans for homes but also walk through lifelike 3D models. "We can invite clients inside the design concept instead of just showing them two-dimensional drawings," Brouchoud says. "It gives customers a whole new kind of visualization. There's nothing like being able to walk into what could be your home."
* http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_68/s0808041522849.htm?chan=magazine%20channel_bwsmallbiz%20--%20top%20stories
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