Whereas I LOVE the open floor plan. I think those photos are gorgeous and airy, and the space inside a “round” house could work very well as long as you basically treat it like a loft space. Few to no interior walls, separate areas distinguished by furniture placement, maybe some silk screens, etc. I’d even say it would be better to have an actual upper loft area for the bedroom, rather than a room.
I agree that it wouldn’t subdivide into rooms with walls very well. Bathroom and closets would probably have to be small wedges at the back of the house (away from your “view”).
Just for something completely different, another take on a prefab Dwelling and made for minimal impact on Hawaii 's lava coast, check out his lavaflow homes at http://craigsteely.com/projects/lavaflow_2.
I find the pictures in the link very appealing. It just seems to fit the environment so well, windows everywhere to accompany the 360 degree view, lots of porch, secure in high winds, etc. The 2 story possibility solves bedroom privacy issues too. The last thing I’d want in Hawaii is something conventional.
One consideration though is that this would probably work best if you’re not in a ‘neighborhood.’ Will you be on an adequate amount of acreage, one where your views aren’t occluded by proximal residences?
Yes, definitely. Since you’re having the house built for you, you can arrange for room divisions and furniture which works for you. The builders are probably very used to people asking ‘but where will I put my sofa/fridge/etc?’ and should have solutions.
My living room (192 square feet, so not that large) has 13 walls and 3 windows, and my daughter’s bedroom (125 square feet) has 7 walls including two very odd angles. I recently had to measure them up - lots of trigonometry involved - and laying the much-needed new flooring will be really difficult. I shouldn’t imagine that’ll be a problem for you, though, since the flooring you get laid when it’s built should be fine forever.
The land is almost 8 acres and its location is fairly isolated just north of Hilo less than 1/2 a mile from the water, so all the windows won’t present a problem with neighbors. It’ll be for retirement in several years time. The land is fairly inexpensive now so we want to get it while we can.
We’ll probably leave the upper floor open with no divisions only a few pieces of furniture near the center. Dividing up the upper floor with its vaulted ceiling wouldn’t look right. The first floor will have some divisions for the bedrooms, bathroom and kitchen. With a flat ceiling the rooms won’t look too odd.
