Airplane House

                The house I’m designing is going to be almost completely constructed from a decommissioned Boeing 747-400.  The building itself will have a u-shaped driveway and will be literally raised off the ground twelve feet.  The space beneath the house will double as a “covered parking area”.  A spiral staircase built inside of a jet engine outer shell leads up to the main floor.  Right in front of the entrance to the main floor is a sliding-glass door that allows occupants to access the outer deck space encircling the home, which has wood-panel flooring built from scrap wood gathered from construction and demolition sites.  This floor is the primary living space with all the amenities which include the living room, dining room, kitchen, master bedroom, utilities room with washer and dryer and the bathroom.

                A traditional staircase takes you from the main floor to the upper floor, which is built on top of the master bedroom/utilities rooms and the bathroom.  This floor is primarily for entertaining guests.  It includes a bar, pool table and a second “bungalow style” bedroom.  An interesting feature of this space is a cross-bridge walkway that is above the kitchen entryway and connects the bar to the other features of the upper floor.  The upper floor was designed to reflect the historical “aviator bars” of the 1920s-1950s.

                The entire house is encased inside the nosecone portion of the aircraft that is tilted toward the sky and cut into three segments that are joined by windows.  The middle and back segments also have hydraulically powered window shades that are topped with solar panels that supply clean energy to the household.  This way, the natural light level within the home is very controllable, decreasing the need for artificial lighting.

                This space was created in order to repurpose decommissioned airliners at the Davis-Mohnton boneyard in Tuscan, Arizona.  The actual house would be built somewhere near the boneyard in order to cut down on shipping costs and pollution generated through the transportation process.  Using these aircraft for this purpose allows for them to be reused, giving the materials a “second chance”.  This will have a doubly ecofriendly effect in that the house will be built totally out of reused materials/concrete, and space will be freed up at the boneyard, reducing the need for expansion, which will preserve the surrounding ecosystems.

                The house is designed to reflect its environment as well as the materials used to build it.  The dome-like, curved architecture reflects nearby adobe-style cliff dwellings.  The u-shaped driveway gives an abstract representation of airplane wings.  The fact that the home is raised twelve feet above the ground gives onlookers a sense that the house is “flying”.  This gives a tie-in both to the aircraft materials and the cliff dwellings at the same time.

                The color scheme I have chosen for this house is a split-complimentary color scheme which incorporates the colors red, orange, sky-blue and white.   I chose this color scheme for three primary reasons.  The first is that it is very reflective of the surrounding desert landscape.  Red and orange are the basic tonality of the region in daylight, in combination with the blue color of the sky.  Orange, red and blue are also the three most popular tones used for commercial aircraft.  White was chosen as the base for its highly reflective nature, which will help keep cooling costs down in the desert environment.

                Psychologically, these colors are both emotionally uplifting and calming, and also can inspire a sense of passion.  Orange tends to make people feel awake and alert, while sky blue gives individuals a sense of peace and completeness.  Red is a color that insights passion.  These colors used in collaboration with one another are very representational of sunsets/rises, which are very relaxing to those viewing them.

                Altogether, this has been a very fun and exciting project that has had its challenges, but overall has helped me think “outside the box” in regards to being eco-friendly.  I really enjoyed laying everything out and developing an interesting and engaging design within the strict parameters of the assignment.  There were many challenges faced along the way, primarily involving “subtle disagreements” with technology, but once those adversities were overcome, encountering and working through them made me appreciate my finished product all the more!  In closing, I have gained a new appreciation for being eco-friendly and firmly believe that our society is going to need to switch gears towards sustainable design, at least where housing is concerned, in the very near future in order to survive.

Spec Sheet

Residential Home by Caleb Barnes

Location: Tucson, Arizona

20’ x 40’ Residential Home

Materials:  decommissioned Boeing 747-400, re-acquisitioned waste wood gathered from           construction/demolition sites, concrete, solar panel window-shades

Special Features:

Elevated above ground 12’, which gives the house a sense that it’s “flying”.

Open-air space beneath house doubles as “covered garage”.

U-shaped driveway gives abstract wings representation.

Spiral staircase leading from ground level to main floor imitates jet engine elements.

Main floor uses curved wall elements that allow for more efficient use of space and fuselage materials

Second floor incorporates aviator-style bar elements to tie the materials to a portion of aviation history, also incorporates “bungalow style” second bedroom.

Solar panel window-shades reuse hydraulics from aircraft and allow for the controlled introduction of natural light inside the structure, reducing the need for artificial lighting.  Also, the solar panels produce clean energy for the house.

Wood-panel deck gives great birds-eye views of the surrounding landscape and increases privacy within the home by blocking ground-level onlookers’ view of the interior