Castle Design and Log and Timber Home
Design
By Rand Soellner Architect
Rand
Soellner AIA / NCARB 828. 743. 6010
Here
we are designing another castle. Back when I was 16 years old and
working as a carpenter's assistant on weekends and just beginning to
become a draftsman for an architect who lived down the street from
my parent's home, I never imagined that one day I would actually be
designing castles. Castle design is a remarkable activity. We have
and continue to study the geology of this particular castle site,
investigating the location of the bedrock under the shoulder of the
mountain on which this castle will be built. The owners and I agreed
on a theme for this castle design and we have jointly called it
Boulder Falls Lodge. |
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The
views from this castle are mid- to long-range mountain views. This
castle architecture is a unique and robust mixture of log and timber
frame design for the roofs and some of the gable treatments, with
the stone walls and arches largely original, but perhaps sharing
some of the stoutness of my great-grandfather's 1869 Bavarian castle
design and castle construction roots, where he worked as a carpenter
on some of the cathedrals and castles in southern Germany (then
called Prussia). Notre Dame Cathedral on the isle of Cite in Paris
served as part of the inspiration for the flying buttresses; I was
there in 2000 when stone masons had scaffolding around the cathedral
performing restorative maintenance. Castle design architects are
none to numerous on the planet and I count myself as fortunate to be
a castle architect. The footing and lower walls of this castle
design are to be cast-in-place steel reinforced concrete, a much
stronger and more durable solution than most historic castles'
rubble rock on earth in much of Europe. The stone for this current
castle design will be predominately North Carolina granite and
Tennessee field stone. Castle design incorporates architectural,
mechanical and structural design analyses to provide for proper
subterranean waterproofing and drainage around the structure.
Monumental stone-faced concrete monumental stairs majestically step
down the mountain slope to one of the driveway turning circles.
Manmade enhanced waterfalls cascade over cliffs to the rear of the
castle and under a sleeping porch and waterfall view deck to storage
tanks in the crawlspace (some might call that the dungeon level),
where pumps filter and treat the water and send it to spring points
at the top of the monumental stairs where two waterfalls pour over
recessed treads, down the monumental stairs through an amphitheater
and down to the drive circle where they pass under paving in piping
to a manmade pond called Sunset Lake. 24" diameter debarked
logs form part of the roof structure. Both Versailles and the
Biltmore Castle served as historic reference for the carved stone
railings.
If you are considering having a castle designed
for you, please give Rand Soellner Architect a call at 828-743-6010
or 828-269-9046 or e-mail us at:
randsoellner@earthlink.net
Our website is: randarch.com
This article
serves as reference for:
castle designs
castle architects
castle architecture
castle and log and timber home design
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© Copyright 2004-2008 Rand Soellner,
All Rights Reserved Worldwide.
Photo background
of historic timbers courtesy of: Antique Cabins &
Barns (antiquecabinsandbarns.com)
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