Over the course of 38+ years in the truss and component business, I’ve had the opportunity to see many unusual approaches to designing single family homes. Some I’ve thought were interesting, some were puzzling, and some were just odd – at least to my eye. Here are some that stand out in my mind.
During the 1980s, we supplied trusses to a handful of earth shelter homes, including one for a co-worker. An earth shelter home is typically built set into a hill so that the surrounding earth provides shelter and insulation from harsh weather. In some cases, including my co-worker’s home, soil is also placed above the roof, in his case about 24” thick. As you can imagine, this is a significant amount of additional weight even before you consider the snow load anticipated for our area. Although I’ve always had confidence in the loads that wood trusses can carry, the idea of that soil being over my head would never sit well with me. I would also be concerned about the possibility of water leakage and damage over time, and the challenge in dealing with any leaks and resulting water damage. And I know that my somewhat claustrophobic wife would never set foot in the house!
Another design that has stuck with me over the years had me scratching my head for both aesthetic and structural reasons. The house had a very simple 20’x20’ ground floor, but the second floor cantilevered out 10’ on all four sides. To me, the result was something resembling a toadstool. Structurally, we ended up designing an open web floor system, with primary trusses 30” deep. Floor trusses in the east/west direction were 6” shallower because they were designed to be threaded through openings in the trusses running north/south. To add to the challenge, this house was built in the days before we had 3D layout software, so all the geometry and multiple load cases needed to be developed manually.
While working for a glulam and heavy timber company, we supplied a house project that involved the house spanning over a small creek below. The entire house was supported approximately 20’ above the water below by a large, heavy glulam structure spanning over 80’. The view from the house was spectacular, and it was certainly unique, but I recall remarking that the cost for the structural package alone was more than the finished cost of a more typical home.
Of course, I’ve also seen my share of crazy architectural “wonders” that couldn’t be translated from paper to the real world, including long spans with impossibly slender cross-sections and cathedral ceilings that protruded through the roof plane.
Have you had plans cross your desk that were truly unique? Home designs that you had to explain to the designer and builder were just not possible? Please share them with me.