The design

Exterior front wall with windows.

Floor plan.

Bird's eye view.

Here are some pictures of the final design. A greenhouse spans the length of the house, windows face SSE and are angled to the winter sun (passive solar gain). A sloped metal roof allows for rainwater harvesting. The walls are used tires rammed with earth. Before we can even start the house, we have to bury pipes for radon. There's a lot of radon in the soil here in the Prairies, which is the #2 cause of lung cancer (#1 is smoking, naturally). We need to lay down pipes to divert the radon so it doesn't leach into our house and kill us :) In fact, the Brandon Sun just did an article stating "More than 40 per cent of homes in the Prairie Mountain Health region contain higher than accepted levels of radon."