How to Design a Unique House

Convex House by Antonin Cardillo

A unique house can express your character, make a statement or be an inexpensive alternative to traditional home design. Re-using materials and spaces creatively is an imaginative way to build an environmentally friendly structure. Not all unique houses are green so if being energy conscious and responsible is important to you, choose a plan that puts those elements at the forefront. Take the topography of your building lot into consideration. Some unique house designs require a flat lot while others work well on sloped properties.

Instructions

1. 

   Have a Quonset hut erected on your property. Use an open floor plan in the large interior space or add a loft. Build a bedroom and bathroom under the loft for privacy and leave the rest of the space an expansive living, dining and cooking area.

2. 

   Re-use several empty shipping containers. Containers are inexpensive to buy and can be set side-by-side to create larger spaces, placed at right angles to create discreet living areas or stacked on top of each other for multi-leveled living.

3. 

   Build a dome. Choose a geodesic design or a cast concrete dome. These homes have the advantage of the large, open space of a Quonset hut without the industrial look and can be quite large.

4. 

   Relive your childhood by building a tree house. The design ranges from a small room with kitchenette and bath to elaborate multi-bedroom homes with all of the features of a traditional stick-built home.

5. 

   Retrofit a cave. Cave homes can incorporate truly unique features like underground rivers, stalactites and stalagmites. The interior design is only limited by the size of the cave and the height of the ceiling.

6. 

   Bury your home in the ground with an earth-sheltered design. These homes are energy efficient because it's easy to regulate the interior temperature. Light is provided by skylights and solar panels can be easily oriented.

7. 

   Keep the exterior traditional but build an open, glass-walled atrium in the center for a green oasis. Plant trees and flowers, place benches and tables and install sliding glass doors for access from the living room or great room.

References

• Dwell Magazine of Modern Design
• Tree House Homes

Resources

• Monolithic Dome Homes
• The Cave House
• Earth Sheltered Homes
• Quonset Huts as Homes
• Container Homes