Don Metz is an architect best know for his earth-integrated house that was built in the 1970s to take advantage of the earth as insulation. The Don Metz house was featured as an illustration in the book "Xanadu: The Computerized Home of Tomorrow and How It Can Be Yours Today!" describing its similarities to the Xanadu House. The 1970s in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1970 and 1979. ... Insulation means a barrier to the flow of energy, usually heat, but often sound, and sometimes both. ... The exterior of the Xanadu House in Kissimmee, Florida in 1994 The Xanadu Houses were a series of experimental homes, built to showcase computers and automation in the home. ...
These plans are the winners from the second Compact House Design Competition, a juried contest receiving designs of up to 1250 square feet and with at least two bed rooms from North American architects, designers, and architecture students.
Houses of the future will be smaller, more energy-efficient, and better suited to their environments.
The basic concepts utilized in the design of this house are: clarity of organization and circulation, zoning according to public and private spaces, and the notion of images which depict dwelling.
The Wisconsin Dells and Gatlinburg houses were closed and demolished in the early 1990s; the Kissimmee Xanadu House was closed in 1996 and demolished in October 2005.
At the center of the house was the living room, in which a large false tree supported the roof, and also acted as part of the built-in heating system.
Construction of the Xanadu house in Kissimmee, Florida, began with the pouring of a concrete slab base and the erection of a tension ring 40 feet in diameter to anchor the domed roof of what would become the "Great Room" of the house.
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