dutchcedar
7th December 2004, 03:46
This may not belong in the "Chop Shop", but its a project nonetheless...
I've been designing a rather large home on a lake for one of my all-time favorite clients, over the course of the last few months. During that time, we've "penciled in" a few ideas for their audio-visual experience that sounded like fun at the time... but now its getting to the point where I have to figure out how to make them work. :blink:
For starters, the theater seats twelve. To get to it, you walk through a pair of automatic bi-parting bookcases. That's one project... designing bookcases that will slide open and close automatically without smashing anyone. :rant: Actually, I think I've got that one figured out. I won't bore you with the theater itself... 'cause its really kinda standard stuff... twelve foot screen with an overhead projector and comfy seating for twelve. It's pretty much a clone of the attached pic...
In the Living Room, a 30 foot by forty foot room with an eighteen foot high arched ceiling, there's a full height glass wall trimmed in pre-cast concrete that happens to be the best place for a television. We thought, "Hah, no problem... we'll just pop one out of the floor when we want it". Hmmm.
So now I'm designing an apparatus that lifts a 65" plasma screen out of the floor, in front of the glass wall, but when its retracted, there's no sign of it. I gotta tell ya... this is friggin' fun. It turns out that we have to build a pit in the house slab that's seven feet long, two feet wide and five feet deep to accomodate this little monster. :o It's being driven with a motor drive and ballscrew, lifting the three foot tall screen and a collapsing two foot tall base cabinet (they telescope into each other).
Moving to the Master Bedroom... there are a pair of matched double vaulted ceilings. One is above the sleeping area, the other above the sitting area. Yah, it's gonna be an awesome room. In the middle will be a pair of 42" plasma TV's that drop down out of the ceiling and tilt for better viewing... so you can see one from the sleeping area, the other from the sitting area. Believe it or not... we're doing that with "off the shelf" stuff.
What's exciting about this project is the client. He's a custom bike builder that simply isn't scared of things that move. Heck, he's even asking if his sixteen foot long granite and stainless steel barbeque can "fold" into the ground over the winter. I said no. :lol:
Anyway... as this house moves along, I'll post some pictures. It'll have some fun stuff in it. Oodles of 'puters, too. B)
I've been designing a rather large home on a lake for one of my all-time favorite clients, over the course of the last few months. During that time, we've "penciled in" a few ideas for their audio-visual experience that sounded like fun at the time... but now its getting to the point where I have to figure out how to make them work. :blink:
For starters, the theater seats twelve. To get to it, you walk through a pair of automatic bi-parting bookcases. That's one project... designing bookcases that will slide open and close automatically without smashing anyone. :rant: Actually, I think I've got that one figured out. I won't bore you with the theater itself... 'cause its really kinda standard stuff... twelve foot screen with an overhead projector and comfy seating for twelve. It's pretty much a clone of the attached pic...
In the Living Room, a 30 foot by forty foot room with an eighteen foot high arched ceiling, there's a full height glass wall trimmed in pre-cast concrete that happens to be the best place for a television. We thought, "Hah, no problem... we'll just pop one out of the floor when we want it". Hmmm.
So now I'm designing an apparatus that lifts a 65" plasma screen out of the floor, in front of the glass wall, but when its retracted, there's no sign of it. I gotta tell ya... this is friggin' fun. It turns out that we have to build a pit in the house slab that's seven feet long, two feet wide and five feet deep to accomodate this little monster. :o It's being driven with a motor drive and ballscrew, lifting the three foot tall screen and a collapsing two foot tall base cabinet (they telescope into each other).
Moving to the Master Bedroom... there are a pair of matched double vaulted ceilings. One is above the sleeping area, the other above the sitting area. Yah, it's gonna be an awesome room. In the middle will be a pair of 42" plasma TV's that drop down out of the ceiling and tilt for better viewing... so you can see one from the sleeping area, the other from the sitting area. Believe it or not... we're doing that with "off the shelf" stuff.
What's exciting about this project is the client. He's a custom bike builder that simply isn't scared of things that move. Heck, he's even asking if his sixteen foot long granite and stainless steel barbeque can "fold" into the ground over the winter. I said no. :lol:
Anyway... as this house moves along, I'll post some pictures. It'll have some fun stuff in it. Oodles of 'puters, too. B)