I've always wanted a house built around a covered courtyard that could be used for a garden. Put air evacuated glass panels over it (with reflective internal grids to take the pressure) and it could insulate as well as the normal roof. I assume visiting the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum as a kid is what inspired the idea.

https://www.fuelly.com/attachments/fo...5ea214069c.jpg

So, a house with a garden in the center and a glass roof over the garden portion? That would be really nice. The idea reminds me of some upscale hotels I've seen with that design.

It took me a minute to figure out what you meant, and in the meantime it reminded me of "green roofs", flat roofs with soil and plants on top. They are supposed to really help a lot with heating and cooling costs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_roof
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...Green_Roof.JPG

That beats the tar out of a modified bitumen roof (pun intended)...

Those are awesome. I know some buildings can't install them because of the extra weight.

That's a sweet idea. I drew up plans for my dream house and the rear of the house opens directly into a glassed indoor pool area(no doors). The upper balcony had a door to the 'real' outside and inside it just overlooks the pool.

After designing it I realized that the house could never be built in a humid area. The only way to keep the pool area from being sweltering would be an evaporative cooler system unless I installed a VERY wasteful industrial refrigerated air system.

I also realized that, while it would be freaggin sweet to have a setup like that, it's just asking for a young one to fall in and drown so I had to design in a retractable glass wall.

Since it is a 'dream' house that will never get built most likely I've also found a wall that I want to revise with a 15x8x3 salt water fish tank.

Maybe you could get an endless pool instead?

Even though my house could be pretty cheap (cuz it'd be small and built in an area with a lousy view), I don't think I'll ever build it. I'm going for the super efficient tiny house approach instead. Spend a lot of time designing convertible furniture and such. Anyhow, if you've never seen the plans for Fuller's Old Man River City, it's pretty wild. Thread got me thinking about it.

Sorry to go back on topic, but Holy Cow is it possible for you to build your greenhouse up against an existing structure? Saves a wall and (possibly) some heat loss.

Big fish tank is sweet! I always thought having a shower where three walls were fish tank would be cool. A little weird, but cool.

I'll have to find it, but someone did that on the north side of their house and hooked it in with their ac system. He did it because his wife couldn't get enough of the smell of fresh flowers in the home.

No allergies with those two! My father bought my mother a greenhouse to try and get some of the plants out of the house. WRONG! My mother just got more plants. It sucked heat from our basement (just a thermostatically controlled blower).

It's possible but undesirable. I could put it against the south wall of my house but that would increase my house cooling costs in the summer. I suppose the cooling costs are still not as bad as the winter heating costs so maybe it would even out...hmm...

It would also have to be pretty small or it would prevent my windows from being useful for ventilation.