Just for the fun of it: my dream home.

[capri0mni]

Overall thumbnail sketch -- Think: the Teletubbies' house.

1. It would be sphere- / dome-based, with curvy, serpentine corridors -- earth-built, poured, molded reinforced concrete, adobe or the like, to avoid the problems of leaking joints in the Geodescic dome Buckminster Fuller designed (as much as I love Bucky).
   
   
2. It would be multi-storied. But instead of stairs (which I cannot climb), or elevators (which can be persnickety and break, and cannot be used in fire) it would have a long, spirally ramp all along the outside wall of the central room, with hand rails within easy pulling reach, so I can pull myself up it fairly easily in event that my motor chair is in the shop, or somthing. And rolling down it would be a major blast. I could sell tickets, and people could come ride it for fun.



3. It would be at least 50% underground (maybe even 60% or 70% underground), and burrow-like, with tunnels, for a safe place to go where tonadoes and hurricanes could not reach me. Also, easier to heat in winter and cool in summer.



4. For light: some variation on fiber optic tubes, which could reflect the natural sunlight light around corners, and into the interior, making the light non-glary and diffuse, but still bright enough to see.



5. For windows: a variation of the same, that would somehow allow me to directly reflect what's going on outside my house onto an interior wall. So I can world-watch and people watch, and skip those large, vulnerable panes of glass that leak energy and have to run-away from in storms (I'd prefer if this tech is passive, relying on mirrors and lenses, rather than electronic cameras and computer digitization; may not even be possible, but this is my dream home).



6. For teh lulz: the exterior facade, leading to the foyer, could be relatively tiny, maybe just a bit wider than the front door, with a gabled, tiled roof, built into the side of the "hill," which would be the main, central dome. For the general TARDIS-y effect of: "It's bigger on the Inside!!!" for new visiters. Also, this would have the practical effect of minimizing the area vulnerable to damaging winds. Floods would be another story, but no building is entirely without risk.


And, saving the most important detail for last:


7. It would be in a wheelchair-accessible neighborhood, with wide sidewalks and well-designed curb cuts, and a bus stop a block or two away, where wheelchair-friendly buses make regular and reasonably frequent stops. So I could leave my cozy burrow when I chose, and go to a wheelchair-accessible art museum, and actually see the art without having to wait outside a locked door begging for a security guard to let me in.

You know, the little things.

Comments

[badbookworm]

Ooh, I might pinch this post, if you don't mind. I'd like to post about my dream house. Would that be ok? I promise to include wheelchair accessibility so you can come and visit when the fairy architect comes and builds them for us. Which will, obviously, happen.

[capri0mni]

Please, be my guest. I'm all in favor of memes that are pro-fun and pro-creative.

And thanks for the wheelchair accessiblity. I never truly realized how psychologically isolating it is to have the only front door in my cul-de-sac that I can approach.

[badbookworm]

Thank you :-)

And yes - I can see how that would be kind of insidious and horrible.

[capri0mni]

And it's compounded by the fact that I am the only one in my cul de sac who is: a) unmarried, b) has no children, and c) has no regular job outside the home.

I have a vague fear that my neighbors view me (if they think of me at all) as some sort of weird, alien creature...

[badbookworm]

If they do they are doofuses (doofi?), but I realise that is less than no help. Perhaps you can educate the younglings, whose dooferifousness has not yet developed? I know it's not up to you to do that, but it can only be to the good.

I'm working on my perfect house post now. Swing by in a bit and see x

[spiralsheep]

You know, the little things.

\o/

[capri0mni]

This comment is a perfect excuse to use my newest icon. \o/