Curriculum

1) YOUR DESIGNERS BRIEF – The most important first step

• How do you envision your finished windows and the rooms they’re in?
• How do you want to use each window?
• What are the site conditions inside and outside your house?
  
• How to make a Design Brief
• Basement Window Well Types

a) Concrete lined? Corrugated metal? Custom? Rock lined? Timbers? Terraced? Open or covered?
b) Outside: Patio? Lawn? Gravel? South facing (the best) or not?
c) Egress: Can you and do you want to get in and out of which wells?
d) Walkout basements: while not being window wells, can be developed into a large attached greenhouse.
e) Inside: finished or unfinished basement? What rooms are served by each window?

2) BASIC ELEMENTS – Sunlight, Water, Soil, Temperature 

         a) Sunlight

• • Painting the inside of the window well with white paint increases the light getting to the plants and brightens the basement. Highly-reflective material increases this.
  • Un-shaded, South-facing window wells can grow well without supplemental light
  • Supplemental lighting system

b) Water

• • Hand watering
  • Automatic irrigation
  • Filtered water
  • Sink at stairs level
  • Washing hands, tools, and produce

c) Soil & Soil Health

• • Every square inch counts! Designing for maximum space using the bottom of the well, raised beds, esplanade vertical walls, hanging pots, ground level
  • Composting, worm farms, mushrooms & mycelium

d) Temperature

• • Climate-battery designs
  • Using the home’s HVAC system
  • Venting & Misting
  • Insulation

3. CONSTRUCTION

a) Inside the Window Well

b) Inside the Basement

• • Kitchen?
  • Plumbing?
  • Electrical?
  • HVAC?

c) Outside the House

• • Ground-level soil gardening
  • Ground-level container gardening
  • Canopy

d) SmartHome Integration

• • Solar energy independence
  • Lighting argumentation
  • Climate control
  • Hazard control (flooding, insects, etc.)

4) GROWING, HARVESTING, COOKING

• • Organic Gardening, Permaculture, Self-sufficiency, food and water security, well-being, and the joy of old-fashioned Dirt Therapy!
  • This is your window to suburban micro-farms, edible landscaping, food forests, agricultural neighborhoods, urban gardening, wilderness regeneration, wildlife care, and sustainable lifestyles!

5) ERGONOMICS, SAFETY, SECURITY
Design the WindoWell garden around the gardener

• • Sliding windows or French door type?
  • Climb up into the window well, or just garden from in the basement?
  • Climb up inside the window well to garden the ground level?
  • Climb up out of the window well and access it from outdoors too?
  • Building a stairs cabinet