Today I went to a library book sale and found a marvelous book called "Eat Your House -- Art Eco Guide to Self-Sufficiency" by Frederic Hobbs. It was written in 1966 and my edition is a republished edition in 1986.

In this book he has an exceptionally interesting (to me) chapter on The Solar Nomad House. He has some good drawings but not too much explanatory text, though he does say "The first principle of construction is that the ground-floor core area shoul be no larger than 600 square feet."

Have any of you knowledge of this Solar Nomad House? I sure would like to know more!!!!! Thanks in advance.

-- Elizabeth Petofi (tengri@cstone.net), April 03, 2000

Answers

Elizabeth: Wow! Never heard of that one. I'm going to do some net surfin, I want to know to. I'll get back if I can find anything....Kirk

-- Kirk Davis (kirkay@yahoo.com), April 03, 2000.

I did a search and couldn't find anything. It WAS a long time ago! There were actually plans drawn up and available for $150 from John M. Johansen, F.A.I.A. in Los Altos, California.

Home has some very interesting and innovative features, such as panels held by wire and turnbuckle which can be raised like a drawbridge. I've only seen these protective panels (which make a lot of sense to me) in a "lock-box" cabin in plans Popular Science offered.

Also used in this solar nomad house are 4x8 skylight bubbles, set at a slant the way they used to design solar homes, with an overhang against which one would draw up the protective (or insulating?) panel. Many of the design ideas in the sketches make a lot of sense, from what I can determine, yet I have not seen them incorporated in other designs. Sure wish I could learn more about this home and if any were built and what happened to them.

-- Elizabeth Petofi (tengri@cstone.net), April 04, 2000.

Elizabeth: I'm still lookin. I was at it real late last nite but as always seems to happen I get interested in lots of stuff then forget what I was looking for. I need discipline!!! But maybe a askme.com expert will know. I'll check.....Kirk

-- Kirk Davis (kirkay@yahoo.com), April 04, 2000.

Doesn't sound quite the same...but take a look at this: http://xarch.tu-graz.ac.at/home/gernot/useless/buckynow.html

-- Deborah (bearwaoman@Yahoo.com), March 25, 2001.