Saturday, March 21, 2009

Entryway?

Does the main doorway have to be on one of the ends of a house?
If we used the broad side of the house we'd be able to have wider doors, perhaps sliding doors, which might help break down the division between inside and out. It would be especially nice during warm weather.

This might have detrimental effects on heat conservation though...

2 comments:

  1. The way we have laid out the home for our 'first draft' does limit to some extent where our doors can be. (hmm. I'll post a floorplan- it's a little hard to see what's going on in the model.) We're definitely continuing to be flexible with the layout, so explorations there are still an option.

    We should brainstorm more ways to break down indoor outdoor barriers.
    I think cars are the answer- people who spend most of their time inside, spend a portion of it commuting in their cars. If a person's indoor-habit is ingrained, the car certainly adds to the problem.
    How can we encourage other modes of transport then? Well, in the case of laneway housing, we can look at policy that makes it possible to add lw housing without adding parking. Some convenient place to store bikes is also a good idea, especially in high density city locations.

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  2. It being very inconvinient to have a car (nowhere to park, for example) would be a good deterrent to having said car. Certainly, having alternatives is important.

    Supporting alternatives:
    +bike shelter/shed. (can the laneway house share the garage of the roadway house?)
    +some physical/environmental representation of the local bus schedule. (ie. the schedule for a given/chosen bus route (the nearest one or the one that is used in the daily commute), is fed into a representation in the house such as one of the vibrating wires or the glowing balls so that residents get an omnipresent peripheral knowledge of when the next bus is coming.)

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