All about shape

Originally we were looking in to a dome kit. We read that round homes use 30%fewer materials. The price of building may end up similar to a conventionally shaped house because a round house is less familiar to builders/contractors/etc. We felt this made sense even if it didn't save us cash it saved using resources. We also learned that the more round the structure the more efficient heating/cooling is due to the structure's airflow.
We were debating between Timberline and Natural Spaces. Both options had their appeal.
We stumbled across icf (more on that in a future post, promise!) and decided that building the house completely out of ICF made sense for us for several reasons.
ICF comes with 90degree or 45degree corners. The 45degree lends itself to a octagonal shape. When comparing efficiency and material use with a circular house vs. octagonal the difference is minimal.
So after spending hours of designing a floor plan the second floor was still giving us trouble. Our aim was to incorporate passive solar strategies. One of the elements of passive solar is an east-west orienation with a long side of a presumably rectangular house facing the south and north. We wondered if we could elongate our octagon making the central area smaller and space on exterior walls (ie more windows) more available... but that would lessen even more the benefits we were seeking through building a round-turned-octagon-shaped-house.
Back to the octagon with an emphasis on the second floor design before figuring out the first floor while recognizing that it's all interconnected so you can't design one floor without considering the others.
So new floor plan that we're feeling confident with... but feedback is very appreciated. This whole house design thing is a lot of pressure. We don't want regrets!

 

 

The trailer is on a 14'wide slab and sticks out about where the random bathtub is... I really want the screened in area (which is probably going to be more a screened in patio) to be on the north side of the house because I envision us escaping out there during the summer and the north side would be cooler. The slab is in perfect position to be the outdoor patio... but in an awkward spot floor design/driveway-wise... I'm sure there will be an updated first floor (at least) plan at some point because of the sill slab factor. I asked if we could move it to where we want the patio (unfortunately not on the north side, but better floor plan-wise) but Ren Man doesn't know if we'd be able to level the ground enough to put it in place rather than pouring new cement/using slate.