The idea of building a home in a remote location is something many people dream of. There’s plenty to love: the privacy, the peaceful setting, uninterrupted views, being surrounded by nature, star-studded night skies, no neighbors. And with it, comes the opportunity to create a self-sufficient site-specific home that provides positive environmental and social benefits. But, compared to urban and suburban settings, building in remote locations involves a little extra planning in creating, maintaining, and operating a home.
A few of our projects are located in remote locations: Lincoln Bluff and Ontario Off-Grid. And as such, we’ve been focusing on what it takes to build in these far out places.
We’ve summarized our thoughts below on the key considerations when designing and building homes in remote locations, broken down into categories of planning, Design, Construction, and Maintenance.
1. Project Planning
The number-one rule when designing a project in a remote setting is to plan ahead. Way before the project starts, questions like the ones below should be answered.
- Is the site buildable?
- Is the site accessible?
- Do we have the resources time, money, skilled labor, expertise) to build what we want?
- How will we provide power, heat, running water, waste removal?
Addressing these questions early helps you define the overall project requirements and goals. It also helps you start to understand the additional costs and time investment involved, as well as where gaps exist in your understanding so that you can find answers.
Once all the big questions are answered and the project goals are formulated, then you and everyone else on your team can start thinking about how to achieve them in the most effective and efficient way – all before the first hammer is swung.
Here are some other things to think about as you’re in planning mode:
Choosing the Right Spot to Build on Your Land
Where you choose to build your home has very big impacts on design opportunities, constuctability, cost, and daily enjoyment for years to come. Characteristics of your site will likely dictate where you should and shouldn’t build. Topography, views, vegetation, existing land features, driveway access, and even solar orientation will play a part in where you site your home. Some areas may have high conservation value that you shouldn’t disturb. Other areas may have a steep slope that would prove cost-prohibitive or structurally expensive to build on.
How Will You Get There?
Part of choosing the right building location is figuring out how you will get there. Is your site accessible by a road, driveway, hiking path, or boat dock? Each of these has logistical impacts on the building process because you’ll need to consider how materials, supplies, and labor will get to the building site.
Building a home often involves trucks, tractors, cranes, delivery box trucks, staging areas for materials, and concrete mixing trucks. Does your site allow for these? If not, how will you adjust the construction means and methods to deal with it? If your site is only accessed by boat or RV, that’s a lot different than if you have a paved drive and parking area.
What Surrounding Areas Will Be Affected + How to Minimize It
The land immediately surrounding your home is particularly vulnerable to contamination, disruption, and destruction.
Consider the entire developmental impact that the construction process will have on the land. Aim for low-impact foundations like pier foundations that raise the home off of the land whenever possible to minimize the impact on the surrounding environment. Excavating and building large foundations is typically a high-impact activity. Machinery and equipment need to be mobilized so additional areas around your building footprint will be impacted. Nearby tree root structures may be affected in addition to the immediate surrounding landscaped areas. Scaffolding, ladders, and staging areas encroach on precious disturbed land.
Also, consider how human waste will be disposed of. Figuring out waste disposal should be an important early decision since it has specific size and location constraints, and can also require a significant amount of money. Connecting to municipal sewage systems is a lot different than composting or having a septic system. Septic systems not only take up space, they also require a specific soil makeup to be effective, which may require a specific site location or require costly alternative systems. Once you know the type of system you’ll have, you can plan and allocate space accordingly so that you can minimize land disturbance.
2. Building Design
Being smart about the big design decisions will go a long way in making it easier to design a home in a remote setting. If you do so, your home becomes less reliant on mechanical and electrical systems. And since you can use all the (free) help you can get to reduce the size and demand of your systems, utilizing passive design strategies is the best place to start.
Employ Passive Design Strategies
Passive design is about designing your house to do as much as it can (passively) to heat and cool itself. We’re talking low-tech operations like natural ventilation, controlling solar gain, and maximizing daylighting.
It starts with big design moves like building placement, size, and orientation. Not only do site features, access, and topography dictate where and how you locate your home on the site. So, too, does solar orientation, wind patterns, and microclimate data. Depending on your climate and geographic location, a long south-facing building may be best, but in another area, a south-facing structure is best.
Once the big moves are figured out, it becomes easier to figure out the smaller passive strategies like roof overhangs, sunshades, natural ventilation, and window placement. For example, once you have the right building orientation, you can design roof overhangs to control the amount of solar gain that enters your home at various times throughout the year. You can also use prevailing breezes to naturally ventilate your space and natural shading like deciduous trees.
How Will Your Home Sit on the Ground?
With remote sites, extra attention must be placed on the foundation design. In urban and suburban settings, it’s typical to have a full basement, crawlspace, or a slab on grade. And in some remote settings, where the design intent is to use the thermal mass of the earth to heat the home, it could make sense. But for a majority of homes in remote settings, these foundation types can be costly and unpractical. Excavation and access for big concrete mixing trucks may be near impossible. This is why we often see homes built on sloping sites to be built on piers or posts and beam foundations which are low-impact.
Connecting With Nature
Another key design consideration is how your home can maximize connections to the surrounding landscape. Because let’s be honest, it’s the reason you’re building out in there in the first place.
One way to do this is to design your home to have large windows that frame important views. Also, including doors to exterior spaces like balconies, patios, and terraces let you experience the outdoors with ease. Of course, you’ll want to be mindful of the bugs and critters, so window screens and screened-in porches are nice.
Ensuring Thermal Comfort
Insulation requirements and window performance should be considered during the design phase. Thermal requirements should be based on your climate and geographic location, as well as what seasons you’ll be using the home. If you’re in an area with extreme weather, you’ll want to make sure you have the right amount of insulation and high-performing windows to achieve your desired comfort level. And if you intend to use the home as a 3-seasons retreat, you don’t need to design it to provide thermal comfort year-round.
Amenities and Systems’ Design
Remote locations pose logistical and financial challenges for heat, water, and electricity. If you’re lucky enough to have municipal connections, your biggest issue is getting them to your building site. Locating your building near utility lines is one way to keep costs down so you don’t have to trench to far out places.
If you don’t have utilities, your off-grid home should employ passive design strategies as much as possible. Let the house heat and cool it as much as it can on its own, so you only have to make up the slack with active systems.
For power generation, consider photovoltaics and/or an emergency generator. For water, collect, store, and reuse rainwater if possible. Otherwise, you’ll need access to a water source like a well or nearby lake to pump water from. Your heat source will likely be a wood stove or propane gas for fuel. Waste will likely be via a septic system or compost. Whatever your system, plan accordingly in the design process. You’ll need to allocate space for each of these systems and their related equipment, as well as design your home to optimize each.
And one last design consideration:
For remote locations with extreme weather, nearby local development can provide clues on design principles (like roof overhangs, roof pitches, material choices, and systems design) for your specific region that work, proven through the test of time. Look to these for guidance.
3. Construction
Planning ahead for the construction process is important. Logistics of transporting people, materials, equipment, and supplies can be a nightmare if not done right. Transport costs can be expensive with long-distance travel adding time and fuel cost. Remote settings also pose challenges in finding skilled workers. You either have to pay a premium to bring in skilled tradespeople, simplify the construction process, or do the work yourself.
Simplify the Construction Process
With higher construction costs, it becomes that much more important to design for a simple construction. In remote settings, it’s not uncommon for the project to be built by hand tools and with a crew of a few people. If this is the case, plan ahead and design a structure that is easy to build.
Simple floor plans, conventional building typologies, and methods help. As does using standard building materials. Consider building to a construction module like 16″ or 24″ modules since most building materials come in 4 ft or 8 ft lengths.
Source materials and labor locally as much as possible
Utilizing local resources to build your home is generally the most cost-effective. It also has the added benefit of injecting much-needed cash into regional economies. But finding local resources is sometimes difficult so you may have to resort to transporting materials and labor long distances which increases costs, not to mention delays in the construction schedule.
One strategy is to limit the material palette and use conventional materials. Stick to standard off-the-shelf materials and easy to source materials. A limited material palette creates a more cohesive design anyway so it’s a win-win.
Prefab vs Site-Built
Does it make more sense to build everything on-site or to transport some or all of the components to the site already built?
There are pros and cons to a prefab construction process. And the decision varies by project. The appeal of building in a controlled environment to minimize the amount of on-site work is very appealing in extreme environments where the yearly construction window is small. It’s also great for minimizing waste and speeding up construction timelines. Prefab construction may or may not cost more depending on your situation and who you work with once you figure in the cost savings for a condensed construction schedule and the logistics nightmare of trying to build on-site.
A drawback to prefab construction is that you need access roads (or boat crane) that can transport large prefab units. In some locations, local roads can’t accommodate large vehicles, either they are too narrow or too steep. Another drawback to prefab is the desire to build the structure yourself or with the support of the local economy. To some people, building their remote cabin is a right of passage and sacred experience that they want to do themselves. Pre-built construction eliminates this ability and with it the ability to build the home with one’s own hands.
4. Maintenance
Lastly, considerations should be made regarding how you’ll maintain and operate your remote home.
Low-maintenance
Enjoying your home and being immersed in the natural setting is the reason you wanted to build this home to begin with. The last thing you want to do is deal with the upkeep and maintenance. Choose durable materials to withstand the harsh environment. Cedar, for example, is naturally rot-resistant. When left unfinished it weathers to a nice gray color.
Long life-cycle & simple equipment
Replacement costs can be expensive, especially when you live out in the middle of nowhere. Choosing products that have a long lifespan will be important. And if you have a complicated piece of equipment that needs servicing, you probably won’t find someone who can fix it within 500 miles, so simplify your equipment as much as possible so a local person can fix it if something isn’t working properly.
Shelter & Protect
Remote locations usually mean there are no fire trucks readily accessible if there’s a fire. Keep everything as fire-safe as possible, especially in areas where wildfires are prevalent. Fire codes typically dictate best construction practices but you may want to go above and beyond the requirements in a remote location.
Also, if you intend to be away from the home for long periods of time, you may want to consider closing up the structure to protect it from extreme weather, vandalism, and pesky critters. Sliding screens and shutters over doors and windows is a good strategy for periods of non-use.
To close out this post, here are some projects we like that were built in remote locations.
Casa Todos los Santos by Apio Arquitectos. Photo by Alejandra Valenzuela.
This house is a modern lakeside retreat on a wooded lot in southern Chile in a protected national park with native forests and volcanos, where the only access is by boat. Posts and beam foundation lets the house perch above the sloped terrain causing the least impact on the environment. Furniture was manufactured from surplus building materials. The interior and exterior walls are clad in natural wood.
Cliff House by MacKay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects. Photo by Greg Richardson.
Set on Nova Scotia’s Atlantic coast, this wood-clad box is precariously perched off a cliff by a galvanized steel superstructure giving a heightened experience of the landscape and a sense of floating on the sea. The building framing is left exposed throughout the interior to avoid a buildup of condensation and to minimize construction costs.
Jeffrey/Sehl Residence by Mafcohouse. Photo by Révélateur Studio.
This project uses a pre-engineered post and beam building system that builds to a 16′ modular grid, eliminating the need for load-bearing walls and columns in open-plan spaces. Large cantilevered eaves shade the interior from summer sun while allowing low-angle winter sun to penetrate and warm the building.
Big Cabin Little Cabin by Renée del Gaudio Architecture. Photo by David Lauer Photography.
Set high on a rocky cliff in Colorado, this pair of off-grid cabins reflect the vernacular of traditional gable-roofed structures and rustic materials in the area. Cedar stained black blends into the surrounding forest. The interior is low-key with plywood walls and ceilings. Daylight and ventilation filter through all sides. Heating is provided by wood stove and radiant heat. A 3kw photovoltaic array provides all the cabin’s electrical needs.
Villa Lola by Arkis Architects. Photo by Inga Mirra Arnardottir.
We like the simple boxy form and roof profile of this Iceland cabin that’s indicative of the landscape; mountains, valleys and a fjord that surround Villa Lola. The larch wood siding is weathered to a gray color, forming natural weather protection.
