Bioconstruction Bill Mollison two rooms deep?

I’m wondering if someone here can help. When Bill Mollison spoke about a house that is two rooms deep, he isn’t referring to a home with a living area, a hallway, and bedrooms & bathroom/s in the back, right? Would the hallway in between the living area and the bedrooms would break up the energy properties of the building?
The thing is if the bedroom walls butt up against the living area wall, the doors to access each bedroom need to open on to the living area, right? The positive aspect of a hallway in between the two areas, living & bedrooms, creates a distribution area where doors don’t interfere with the living area. Only one access point needs to be made in the living area to access the bedroom/bathroom area.

Anyone’s thoughts are much appreciated.

I cant speak for what Bill Mollison was thinking though usually a two room cabins is a main room for activities of cooking and daily life and a quiet room for sleeping.

What is your vision for this?

I remember when Bill talked about that design concept.
It was a common theme at the time and revolved around a few issues;
- passive solar
-  compact building
- warmth from front room can infiltrate to the bedrooms if required
- interference by doors entering the living space was not an issue.
- Maybe its a first world concern

I'm not familiar with this concept from Bill Morrison - do you have a link from his talk? It looks from the drawing as if he's talking about solar gain into a house?

I remember going to Hockerton earth sheltered houses ages ago and they had access only from the South. The whole of the front of the houses (a terrace)  was taken up by conservatories and the living spaces were in behind. There was no heating in the main house - they were heated by solar gain from the conservatory, electrical appliances and the occupants themselves.



Hockerton Housing Project gives a bit of an overview on how the houses were designed to be relatively economic (at the time) to build.


Hockerton housing project

edit - fixed link

Cross-posted John! Looks like I was barking up the right tree then.

That's an interesting project, Nancy! Looking at the design with all the glass in the roof, I wonder how they deal with excess heat gain in summer and night time heat loss in winter.

Robert, looking at Mollison's drawing, doors through to the second layer of rooms could be seen as a benefit or a problem, depending how the rooms are used. Any openings in the wall will reduce the thermal mass in the back wall of the front space. Less mass to absorb the heat from the lower angled winter sun entering the house will reduce how much heat could be released into both the room in front and the room behind at night. Openings in that wall with closed non-mass doors are the worst possible option. But an open doorway though to a back room with thermal mass flooring, as in the houses Nancy showed, could add to heat gain there. That could mean warmer back rooms but a cooler front area once the sun goes down. Depends where you want the heat most after dark.

If fewer openings in that dividing wall are desirable, then rather than a full length hall in between which you observe would disrupt the goal of the design, a single door off the front sunny room could open to a small vestibule serving two back rooms, which would halve the number of openings required.

Going back to the initial photo.
Bill has drawn a simple drawing of a  building that has a winter and a summer sun.
It has thermal mass with the floor and the rear wall of the living area.
The edge of the roof line is positioned to ensure the summer sun is excluded and
the winter sun is welcomed to heat the thermal mass in the rear wall and the floor.

Jane Mulberry wrote:That's an interesting project, Nancy! Looking at the design with all the glass in the roof, I wonder how they deal with excess heat gain in summer and night time heat loss in winter.

I believe there is a fair amount of opening windows! You can see the large windows to the top of the glazed roof. The inner houses are fully separated with windows and walls too so they can keep the heat out in summer or let it in in winter - the same for cooler night/overcast conditions in winter.

John C Daley wrote:Going back to the initial photo.
Bill has drawn a simple with a building that has a winter and a summer sun.
It has thermal mass with the floor and the rear wall of the living area.
The edge of the roof line is positioned to ensure the summer sun is excluded and
the winter sun is welcome to hear the thermal mass.

Yes I  think Bill's sketch would suit a hotter climate than the UK better - you wouldn't need/want a conservatory as the ambient air would already be hot enough!

Nancy I have just realised the 'jump on", it confused me.
I wonder how it could have been introduced separately?