samford-valley-home/docs/PROJECT-CONTEXT.md

# Samford Valley home — project context

This is Marcus Rehbock's long-term personal homestead design project. The aim is to refine the design over several years, choose a real site, add survey and LiDAR information, coordinate construction plans, and eventually create a full Unreal Engine 5 walkthrough. The design is a working concept, not an approved or engineered building proposal.

## Latest revision — v009 wind turbine, 24 September 2026

Added a three-blade wind turbine on a freestanding mast beyond the northwestern edge of the homestead. The concept location (-36, 40) m, 18 m hub height and 6 m rotor diameter are illustrative placeholders pending an actual site, wind measurements, equipment selection, engineering and approvals. Solar and storage remain part of the brief.

Current public Blender file: `blender/samford-solarpunk-wind-tour-v009.blend`, derived from distributable v007. The private v009 Blender file preserves the licensed v008 Tesla at `/home/marcus/projects-private/samford-valley-home-v009/`. Keep private binaries out of public Git. Both models add matching detailed/fast turbine geometry and chapter 32; the tour now lasts 2 min 40 sec and opens at the turbine chapter. Shift + Left Arrow restarts the complete tour.

Current plan: `plans/concept/wind-turbine-plan-v009.svg`. Current overview: `renders/v009-wind-overview.png`. See [v009 decision](../decisions/2026-09-24-v009-wind-turbine.md) for assumptions and feasibility work. The Unreal walkthroughs and v007 film are unchanged and do not yet include the turbine. All previous house and landscape features remain, including the future pavilion outlines and garden Buddha.

## Historical state: version 007, 12 September 2026

Open `blender/samford-solarpunk-presentation-tour.blend` in Blender 5.2.1. This is the preserved v007 model. It includes the detailed kitchen and bedroom upgrades, a garden-centred arrangement, 13 flowering beds, and a 31-chapter camera tour lasting 2 minutes 35 seconds at 24 fps. The former table-tennis platform and its equipment have been removed. Earlier dated scene files are historical versions.

The latest plan is `plans/concept/buddha-garden-plan.svg`. It is generated from the same `buddha-garden-layout.json` coordinates used by the Blender revision. The Buddha close-up is `renders/buddha-garden.png`. Other current images are `renders/container-water-overview.png`, `container-water.png` and `container-water-cutaway.png`. The preceding garden revision also has courtyard, planting, dining and training detail renders.

## Philosophy and values

Marcus wants a peaceful, modest, natural home that supports family, strength training, meditation, sleep, books, shared meals and growing food. He described the overall feeling as **solarpunk**. The house should sit in its subtropical hillside landscape rather than dominate it.

The initial inspiration is Derek Sivers' **Building without predicting**: https://sive.rs/fit . Start with simple, well-insulated rectangular modules; live in them and adapt rather than predicting everything in advance. Stewart Brand's phrase used in the brief is: “All buildings are predictions. All predictions are wrong.” Keep services and structural connections exposed and replaceable. Future additions must be visibly possible, not presented as already built.

Marcus asked for recommendations based on https://blog.rehbock.xyz . The resulting approved additions support repeated themes of strength training/BJJ, shared coffee and meals, informal social play, quiet bush walking, reading and easy everyday food routines. References: https://blog.rehbock.xyz/3/ , https://blog.rehbock.xyz/4/ , https://blog.rehbock.xyz/5/ . These are design motivations, not medical claims about materials regulating the nervous system.

## Buildings and programme

- **Main pavilion:** approximately 12 × 6 m, long axis east–west, single-storey, one open kitchen/dining/living room. North-facing openable timber-framed sliding doors and a 2.4 m deep verandah. Initial mono-pitch roof brief: 3.4 m north to 2.7 m south. Keep the main shared room central.
- **Parents' wing:** approximately 8 × 5 m, private enclosed bedroom and bathroom adjacent to the main pavilion via a short corridor. Current centre is (-11.8, -4.9). The bedroom is its own enclosed room; it is not part of the open living room. The bathroom is accessed via the small lobby.
- **Meditation room:** one small enclosed pavilion, 4.5 × 4.8 m, with timber, soft clay, a meditation cushion, simple mat, candles and a low bench. Current centre (-11.8, 12), aligned with the parents' wing. It may change use later.
- **Future rooms:** two faint unbuilt pavilion outlines, now centred at (11.8, 12) and (0, 24). The east reserve balances the meditation pavilion around the garden court. Earlier solid children's rooms were explicitly rejected. Do not reinstate them without a new request.
- **Sauna and shower:** detached Finnish-style oval timber sauna, now centred at (-23, 4.2), with separate outdoor shower and stone terrace. It is a sauna, not a detached toilet. The bathroom remains in the parents' wing.
- **Garage:** approximately 8 × 7 m, one white Tesla Model Y-inspired vehicle, workstation/workbench, tool storage, bicycle racks, EV charging and rooftop solar. Centre (0, -19), aligned with the main pavilion. Retain road access and turning space.
- **Training:** covered timber deck centred at (-9.4, -19), with a separate steel exercise frame, pull-up bar, wooden rings, two adjustable dumbbells, adjustable bench and movable mats. The intended real frame must have an appropriate manufacturer/engineer load rating; this concept geometry is not a certification.
- **Outdoor meals:** terrace adjoining the east end of the verandah, table for ten with benches and end chairs, pergola shade and a tea/matcha preparation counter.

## Kitchen, sleep and technology

The kitchen now contains detailed timber cabinetry/drawers, an oven, four-zone induction cooktop, exposed extraction duct, recessed sink and copper tap, copper pots/pan with stainless food-contact surfaces and a compatible-base concept, and a 2.2 × 0.95 m honed marble-topped island. The approximate island-to-rear-counter aisle is 1.7 m. A breakfast-prep counter, pantry, compact upright freezer and outdoor harvest bench support convenient food routines.

The main living room has a two-bay timber bookcase with 163 books, a reading chair, side table and reading light.

The bed has an Eight Sleep Pod-style cover and bedside cooling hub, lined blackout curtains and split-system air conditioning with an outdoor condenser. These are indicative product forms, not final selections. To close the curtains, enable the detailed scene, select each BLACKOUT CURTAIN, and set the `Closed - blackout` shape key to 1; 0 is open. The fast display copy shows the open state.

Starlink is included. One local-AI server sits in a ventilated cabinet in the main house, without a separate server room. Marcus asked for enough computer capacity to run a “64GB model” locally. Existing model naming targets 128–256 GB system memory; exact model size, quantisation, accelerators, power, cooling and hardware selection remain unresolved.

## Landscape, circulation and symmetry

Version 004 responds to Marcus's request for a more cohesive architectural composition, an element of symmetry, and smooth curves in the relationships between buildings. Rectangular pavilions retain a common timber/mono-pitch vocabulary. A central garden axis links the house, oval garden court, northern future reserve and garage. The west meditation pavilion and east future reserve balance one another. Training and ground solar align on either side of the garage.

The garden court has a continuous oval gravel walk, low central groundcover and paired flower beds. A curved covered timber breezeway connects the verandah to the meditation entry. Smooth gravel paths connect dining, the food garden, the quiet bench, sauna, tanks and arrival. The car route is distinct from the pedestrian garden routes. Thirteen planted beds contain illustrative native grasses, flowering perennials and bottlebrush-inspired shrubs. Two concept eucalyptus groups were relocated clear of the moved solar array and driveway.

The table-tennis table **and entire dedicated deck** were removed at Marcus's request because they did not feel cohesive. Their former area is now a flowering kitchen garden. A separate **future** 10 × 10 m basketball reserve remains south of the service zone; it has neither a court surface nor a working hoop. The user did not ask to remove this reserve.

Keep north-facing views, sun access and air movement in mind. Do not treat symmetry as a reason to block the verandah or force every room into identical dimensions. No property boundary, site survey, slope engineering, flood assessment, bushfire assessment or approved vehicle access has been supplied. The landscape and roads are illustrative.

Design references consulted in this revision:
- https://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/orientation
- https://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/shading
- https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/about-council/your-brisbane/environment-and-sustainability/gardening/best-plants-for-brisbane-gardens

## Materials

Marcus prefers “warm timber, soft clay walls, selective hemp insulation, stone underfoot where appropriate, and honest steel connections.” Timber, bamboo ceiling lining, clay/mineral finishes, exposed rafters and warm concrete/stone remain central. The initial brief included spotted-gum posts and weatherboards, aged silver-grey timber, warm oxide concrete, and light Colorbond roofing. Natural materials are preferred, with steel and other construction materials used where useful. He asked about cob, mud, bamboo and low-toxicity materials, but did not commit to a complete cob or earth-wall building system. Avoid unsupported claims that a material is non-toxic in all forms or clinically regulates the nervous system.

## Energy and homesteading

Keep rooftop solar, a separate ground array (current conceptual footprint centred at 9.4, -19), off-grid energy storage, two sealed rainwater tanks inside a dark-green container-style enclosure, greenhouse, six raised vegetable beds, fruit trees and garden harvest bench. Product capacities, structural design, solar yield, battery autonomy, water balance, wastewater treatment and food-production targets have not been engineered.

## Blender and Unreal state

Blender has full editable geometry and Cycles materials. Saved render settings are 2560 × 1440 at 100%; web preview renders are made at 60% (1536 × 864). The user previously reported low playback FPS. `00 FAST TOUR - lightweight viewport` is a static simplified display; `DETAIL - full geometry for renders` is disabled only in the viewport. Cycles renders exclude FAST and use DETAIL automatically. For detailed editing, enable DETAIL and disable FAST. After moving or removing geometry, refresh the affected fast copies as well.

The tour contains 31 five-second chapters. Space plays/pauses with the pointer over the 3D view; Shift+Left Arrow returns to frame 1. The current scene opens at the site overview; the Buddha remains chapter 31. Update camera positions and captions whenever a subject moves.

The actual Unreal work now includes the **whole-site walkable prototype**, `unreal/SamfordHomestead/SamfordHomestead.uproject`, in UE 5.8.2: 229 imported mesh groups, 117 materials, 179 collision-enabled mesh groups, bundled architectural walking pawn, lighting and saved cameras. A fresh-launch play test passed eight floor traces and moved the possessed walking pawn about 3.45 metres from the verandah into the living entry. The earlier meditation study remains historical. This is editor Play mode, not a packaged standalone app. `walkthroughs/CLIENT-PRESENTATION-V007.md` records controls and limitations.

## Storage and continuation

Public repository: https://git.rehbock.xyz/marcus/samford-valley-home . Server working archive/repository: `/home/marcus/projects/samford-valley-home`. Public gallery: https://rehbock.xyz/projects/samford-valley-home/ . The gallery contains selected images, descriptions and a concept SVG. Marcus subsequently authorised making this repository, its working assets and design context public.

The repository includes Blender models, renders, plans, design context, revision records, source scripts, Unreal assets and reserved folders for survey/LiDAR/construction information. Dated compressed snapshots remain in the server archive and are excluded from Git to avoid duplicating the entire repository in each commit. Git LFS is disabled on the existing Gitea installation; current assets are stored as ordinary Git binaries. Plan large-file/object storage before adding multi-gigabyte LiDAR or video datasets. No new off-site backup service has been configured.

Read `REQUEST-HISTORY.md`, the decisions folder and `AGENTS.md` before making further changes. Do not mistake historical renders or earlier briefs for the current approved layout.

## Version 005 water module

Marcus requested that the water tanks become a shipping container. The visible module is a roughly 20-foot corrugated-steel container at (-25, -8), 6.06 × 2.44 × 2.59 m. Two separate sealed tanks fit inside; the steel shell is an enclosure, not the water-retaining vessel. The cargo doors are at the east end and the west end is a transparent inspection cutaway. Plumbing is kept off the door faces, and the service path approaches the east end. Current renders: container-water.png, container-water-overview.png and container-water-cutaway.png. Exact tank products/capacities, water quality treatment, hydraulic sizing and container support design are not resolved by the concept model.

## Garden Buddha — version 006, 10 September 2026

Added a seated weathered-limestone Buddha on a low stone plinth north of the meditation pavilion, facing east into the shared garden court. The statue has a draped robe, folded hands, lowered eyes, elongated earlobes and a carved topknot. Position (-12.4, 15.35), clear of both the room and curved walking route. Added a lightweight viewport proxy and chapter 31 to the Play tour (2 min 35 sec total). The scene opens on the statue. Existing house, container water module, future shadows and landscaping remain intact.

## Version 007 presentation work

Marcus requested more overall Blender fidelity, a start on a walkable UE5 simulation, and a video suitable for showing the house concept to clients. Enhanced materials, softened edges, woven pendants, ceramics, living textiles, leaf geometry and path detail preserve the existing programme and coordinates. Current Blender stills are presentation-overview.png, presentation-kitchen.png and presentation-garden.png. The separate cinematic has eight three-second animated shots. The client MP4 adds opening/closing cards for 30 seconds total. It is 1080p/24 fps delivery from 1440×810 Cycles source frames at 6 fps, interpolated within each shot and upscaled. It has no audio. Describe it as a first concept presentation rather than final photorealistic marketing output.

## Pending wall-integrated bed requirement

A 11 September 2026 note requests that the bed be rigidly built into wall framing with a considered load path, quiet isolation and Eight Sleep access. This was recorded without a geometry edit in decisions/2026-09-11-bed-wall-integrated.md. The v007 presentation retains the current free-standing bed; incorporate the wall-integrated platform in the next bedroom design revision, with its fixings and load path still subject to engineering.

## Version 008 — Tesla and daylight

Selected the existing 7K Studio Tesla Model 3 and added clear daytime lighting to Unreal. Full licensed revision is stored privately at `/home/marcus/projects-private/samford-valley-home-v008`; public v007 binaries remain available. See `decisions/2026-09-15-v008-tesla-and-daylight.md`. The v007 movie is unchanged.