Yep, still here...

I haven't made too many posts lately, but that isn't because I've given up on the ideas here. I'm actually still working on the design below; there are a few changes that I've needed to make in order to create a more buildable design, things like trying to arrange rooms requiring plumbing closer together so that long runs of potentially leaky pipes won't be required and can maintain a decent slope to the drains to keep waste flowing.

Also the positioning of load-bearing walls is having an effect on how the building's floor plan can be created. I realized that my positioning of the dining room knocks a substantial portion of structure out from under one of the main building's walls. Not good.

Also another concern is the span of the floor and the ability to frame it while avoiding building more stick-built load bearing walls and lolly-columns in the basement to support long floor joist spans. A solution could be the addition of steel beams midway across the floor to support shorter spans. That would require a cost calculation; would engineered spans cost more or less than steel beam supporting a normal joist setup? I'd like to maintain a completely open floor plan for the reason that walls can be positioned wherever necessary without having to redesign any load bearing walls and do major structural work in the event that remodeling is required. Don't like where a wall is? Need to create more rooms? Need to install an elevator for handicapped access? Just unscrew the walls from the floor, take them down and put new ones where you need them.

So many questions. I'm also trying to locate and calculate engineering data for the type of exterior walls I'm considering. I'd like to find out what quantity, quality and strength of material is required for this type of building. CMU, ICF, and stone, whether it be slipform or whatever, are all in the running. CMU would likely need to be filled with cement in certain areas plus the cost of the CMUs themselves, ICF is fantastic stuff but may be too expensive considering the height of the structure and the finishing required to have a non-styrofoam exterior and interior, and a solid rubble stone structure's walls may need to be more than 2 feet thick at the base to support a building like this if code even allows it. That's a lot of tonnage that one could smash fingers with, and a LOT of work that will take a long time compared to laying blocks of CMU.