Off-the-grid (OTG) is the term used for a special lifestyle where people live without any remote infrastructure. For instance, they don’t need an electrical grid, nor municipal sources of natural gas, water supply, sewer, or other utilities. Living in this way means operating your house independently. But where can you do this? For those of you who would…
For this discussion we are focused on the safe room for protection against Human threats. FEMA has extensive documentation to help consumers on the topic of saferooms for Natural Hazards, https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/risk-management/safe-rooms/faq Multiple vendors are in the business of providing saferooms to clients as a modular assembly or as prefabricated units. Theses range in materials and…
In 2016, I was invited by Senator Bob Hall to speak at the 2016 Texas Grid Security Summit. I spoke on how to secure the grid during disasters, especially on residential level. It came with great disappointment to open the news today to see the total number of deaths in Texas due to hypothermia has…
Article 1 A case for making your new home a Fortified Gold Level Home. When building a new home, we all have a wish list of important features to improve the quality of life compared to our current situation. This usually includes more space, newer things, amenities, fixtures, kitchens, attest developments and home technology, lower…
An article by Bruce Sullivan There’s a myth circulating that super energy-efficient homes cost more to build than homes with typical code-level energy features. Last year, Architect, Richard Pedranti, busted that myth by designing a home to Passive House standards for only $165 per square foot. “We typically use between $175 and $200 per square foot for…
Below are videos with information related to the fortified grade of homes that we design. The video below is 6 minutes of wind force examples from around the world!
We will be writing a series of articles on “The Least That One Should Do When Building A New Home” (or remodeling an existing home). What is important to note is that many of the topics we will be discussing are either very low cost when doing any project, this being whether the home is…
We begin consulting services for new design clients under a predesign consulting agreement to perform the professional service of “Program Development”. Here is an internet source to an explanation of architectural programming https://www.wbdg.org/design-disciplines/architectural-programming There are entire books on the topic, but the above web link is a good introduction. Programming, of any new (or remodeling) secure home seeks…
Space planning for a secure home is notably different from traditional American executive home design and construction. America has lived through a very long period of relative safety, so much so that most new home seekers, as well as residential architects, who design wonderful homes, do not include the topic of physical security in their…
We recently completed a design and build for a client in San Mateo, California. Here are some of the pictures! If you are interested in any of the designs below or have any questions on what we did, please click the button below or leave a comment at the bottom of the page.
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