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Location is one of the important factors in planning the design of a house. It is not likely that you will be able to position the house in a way that fits all the geographic factors such as the lie of the land, the direction of the sun, prevailing wind and rain and that takes into account features on the land such as a well or trees. Then one wants to take into most of a view in a certain direction of avoiding something unsightly or taking into account any special characteristic of the community in which it is located. And it is not reasonable to ignore existing good features unless you have all the money you need to change the surrounds to how you would like them to be.
This is a good example of a house whose location and environment were the main factors for is design. The west of his land looked out onto a pleasant view of large trees. The plot of land was long and narrow and in a north-south orientation. So, the building was orientated with is length in the same orientation as the land and placed on the on the east side of the land leaving space on the west side. The rooms faced west to make the most of the view and the setting sun. But, the window openings had to cope with the afternoon sun. They were designed to be large enough to make the most of the view and let the light in yet in a way that prevented glare by filtering direct sunlight. The walls were double layered. The downstairs area needed to be linked with the pool and the garden, so the opening had to be large. So a wooden lattice was used to filter the sunlight hitting area in the afternoon.
Bearing in mind how long it takes for a tree to grow sufficiently to provide shade it is a good idea to keep any existing trees. If you want to move it you should do it in the right way. In My case I wanted to keep the trees but needed to raise the land about 60cms above the existing level. So I have to leave an area around the tree so that the soil I used to raise the level would not weigh too heavily on the tree’s roots.
Designs which take the environment of the land into account are not only more charming and harmonize with the environment but also add value to the work, especially if that place already has some outstanding feature. However if we are to need to take the life style of the people who use it into account.
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