"Light-filled" is one of the most welcome qualities of any home. Each of us implicitly understands that light-filled spaces are healthier (a key aspect of "smart") and lift our spirits in mysterious way ("beautiful"). Designing a house to take maximum advantage of natural light touches upon many factors (window selection, the depth of the eaves, etc.), but in this post, we'd like to focus on the relatively simple question of orienting a house on its site.
At Cottage Lane, the front of each home will face west and the rear of the home will face east. This suggests that the cottages should have some means of moderating the hot afternoon sun (it is Richmond, Virginia, after all), such as a deep porch, high tech windows, or some carefully placed deciduous trees. At the same time, the long southern exposure of the homes presents a great opportunity to create light-filled rooms, both inside and outside.
With these thoughts in mind, we've created a simple site plan for Cottage Lane that shows the anticipated placement of each cottage home on its lot.
As the site plan above shows, we plan on shifting each home slightly to the northern side of the lot--this will maximize the amount of sunny outdoor garden and yard space for each home. The homes will be longest along their southern edge, to capture the greatest amount of sunlight possible.
Floor plans for each cottage will include a "sunny corner"--an outdoor "room" that is partially enclosed by the home itself to provide a private, welcoming place for outdoor entertaining and relaxing. Finally, we'll be placing porches or substantial stoops on the western facade of the cottages, to shield the homes from the hotter late day western sun--reducing cooling bills and encouraging neighborly interaction.
Please let us know what you think.
