Design My Own Home Tutorial

Module 3 - Planning Outdoor Spaces

This is Module 3 of the Design My Own Home Tutorial. These modules are best read in order. If you are just starting out, go to the:
Introduction of the design your own home plans tutorial.

This module (Planning Outdoor Spaces) assumes you have already completed the last tutorial module (Site Analysis), have created your site map and have researched your zoning laws .

Drawing Bubble Diagrams for Outdoor Spaces

Now you will plan your outdoor spaces before designing your own house.

This is a good time to make a few photocopies of your site map so that you can use them to make a few different plans.

When I began to design my own home, I quickly realized that before I could even start I would have to consider how we were going to use the outdoor spaces on our land, how we would arrive at the property, where the views were, and from which direction any noise or wind came from.

To plan your outdoor spaces, make a photocopy of your site map, then:

Indicate with X marks or loosely drawn circles (we'll call them bubbles) areas that you really love and would like to preserve as sitting places, a garden, a children's play area.

Mark where you would most likely approach the property by whatever means applies: by car, foot, bicycle, boat, ski or any other manner. This will help define where your house entry points should be.

(In the image below we've lightened the site map from Module 1 to make the new information stand out.)

Design My Own Home Outdoor Spaces

Site Repair and Site Preservation

Now consider a pattern proposed by the book A Pattern Language. It is called site repair. The basic idea behind site repair is that you choose a part of the land that is not so attractive and you place your house there. In this way you repair or improve this part of the land. However, if the only spots like this on your land do not take advantage of the view or don't work with your drawn bubbles or approach routes, discard this idea. But stop and think about it for a while and ask yourself if parts of the land could be improved upon by building there.

I have a variation of this concept that I call site preservation. The idea is to not build on any of those parts of the land where you really love to sit, play or relax. These are the places that should be preserved as they are and should not be somehow obstructed by a building.

House Placement

For a city lot, consider how close you want to be to the street but balance this with how much you will actually use a front yard. If it's the type of neighborhood where the kids do play out on the street and in the front yards often, leave adequate space for this. If the front yard will be barely used, consider placing the house closer to the street so that there will be more space for a back yard.

Finally on your site map, draw a bubble where you could picture the house sitting. Don't worry too much about dimensions at this point, just make a rough bubble that is roughly the size of the house that you are thinking of at this time. We'll modify this bubble later when you design your own home plans and consider house shapes.

Next Module - Home Needs Analysis Worksheets

Now with your map for outdoor spaces complete, it's time to move on to designing your own house with a:
Home Needs Analysis for indoor spaces - Module 4.

Jump from Design My Own Home Module 3 to the Tutorial Introduction

Jump to The House Plans Guide Home Page

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