briancaos

This particular home has a back side that is never used. This part of the house would usually be facing the street side and we would have our entry here. But this particular house have a south facing street entrance so the entry is moved to the south. With only 6 weeks of summer, and a limited number of sunny days in general, we always face the family room towards west or south to utilize as much of the limited sunshine.

The entry of the house. This part of the house would usually be facing the street side and we would have our entry here. But this particular house have a south facing street entrance so the entry is moved to the south.

The private porch area is an important part of a parcel home. We have about 6 weeks of summer, and this time we spend outdoors. All the time.

The entry of the house is paved with concrete tiles. We do not cast our driveways; the wet weather ruins that. One of the compromises I have to do in Home Designer Architectural is the roof. Danish homes have saddle roofs, but with either a boxed overhang (http://www.spaerfabrik.dk/pictures_org/princip-6.pdf) or a trimple (http://www.spaerfabrik.dk/pictures_org/princip-10.pdf) and I cannot reproduce this roof type. The angle is from 20 degrees to 45 degrees.

Traditionally, homes have been built using bricks for more than 1000 years. We have lots of clay and the red color comes naturally. Wall thickness is 430mm (17 inches), just barely enough to cover the 2015 building regulations. Building regulations state that a 150 sqm (1600 sqf) building can use 36,7 kWh/sqm/year to heat up the house. This requires 300mm (12 inches) of classic insulation. And since a standard brick is 120mm (5 inches) thick, the wall should have been 520mm (21 inches) thick. In this home I use a new energy efficient brick that is only half as thick, and I replace some of the standard insulation with modern PUR foam insulation, which brings my wall thickness to 430mm (17 inches).

Bedrooms are very simple. With a lot of cabinet space. I chose IKEA cabinets here as well.

This home have another luxury item, the bathtub. It will not be used very often; water is expensive so the shower is the preferred way of showering. No one showers in the bathtub, that is simply too silly for us. And dangerous.

Master baths are smaller than the American counterparts. Modern homes have wall mounted toilets because it looks cool and it is easy to clean the floor under them.

The laundry (or scullery as we call it) is a very important area in a Danish home. Our mild but cold and wet climate produces a lot of wet children's clothes and we need to wash our clothes very often. It is also here we hide the technical installations of the house.

A modern Danish kitchen would be high gloss white with hidden handles and a black countertop. Appliances is often concealed behind cabinet doors for a sleek look. I am more traditional and have chosen a birch kitchen from IKEA with a custom oak countertop. IKEA generally have a better reputation in Denmark than in the rest of the world. Their kitchen elements have the same quality as other kitchen manufactures, only the number of options are lower than the competition. An IKEA kitchen would be the DIY person's choice; they are very easy to assemble and you can pick them up in your local IKEA from day to day. Also notice that there are no cabinets (apart from the sink cabinet) only drawers. Cabinets disappeared from the modern Danish kitchen about 15 years ago because it is easier to retrieve items from a drawer. We have no cooking range either. Our preferred design is an induction cooktop and a wall oven. This gives no gap between the cooking area and the countertop.

This is the luxury part of the home. Most Danish homes have a carport or even nothing at all, despite the fact that we live at 55" north which is 100 miles north of Edmonton, Canada and 550 miles north of Coeur D'Alene, ID. But a garage cost money and homes are very expensive to build due to the very strict building codes. The car is a Ferrari 360, out of reach for most people...

Another angle of the family/living room. Paintings and décor are modern and bright. The electrical switches and sockets are an area where I have to compromise my drawings. Danish sockets are smaller and especially the switches have a much better and sleeker (sorry) look. Some modern homes have IHC (Intelligent House Concept) which is computer controllable switches so you can control what every switch should do. These switches are even smaller and look very different (http://www.lk.dk/images/Om%20Lauritz%20Knudsen/Produkter%20gennem%20tiderne/IHC%201993.jpg)

This family area is smaller than average, but I have prioritized the children's bedrooms. The family (or living area as we would call it) is 20 sqm (215 sqf) and the average size is 30 sqm (320 sqf). Furniture is contemporary and we try to have fewer elements and elements tend to be brighter.

Fewer and fewer homes have a separate entry area. Most homes combine the entry with the laundry area. We are very relaxed people, and do not mind that guests can see our laundry. Besides, we experience rain and mud so often that we need an area where we can dump our wet clothes. And since everyone have these issues we do not hide it from the guests.

A somewhat classic layout of a Danish home. The garage is a luxury addition, and the hallway are also almost disappearing from modern houses because they are "waste" square feet. Notice how the entrance is separated from the living area. Most homes have no front yard, only a back yard, but this home have the entrance on the same side as the garden, because the entry to the lot is facing south. Danes are private people and prefer to live their life facing away from the public areas such as the street.

Danish homes have no dining room. They are expensive square feet to build and no one would ever use them. Danes are very relaxed people and we prefer the coziness of a kitchen/dining area. This particular home has a slightly smaller dining area/family area than usually seen because I have prioritized bigger bedrooms for the children. Again the furniture is from IKEA, the clock is from BoConcept and the blackboards are for planning and family notes.

This children's bedroom is 13.5 sqm (145 sqf) and is larger than the average 11 sqm (115 sqf) bedrooms traditionally seen.