"framing system that is super efficient"
Aerospace engineers are really bad about that, actually. Hopefully this concept, unlike aerospace stuff, can actually be built without five mortgages! The types of design goals you mentioned are exactly what I'm going for, so I'm not surprised we're on a wavelength.

Thanks for the tip on 'Riegelbau,' very good stuff there aesthetically as well as structurally, to draw from. Not super sure how to adapt it to an octagonal plan with shallow roof, but I'd like to try. Only thing I don't like is the number of hammer-beam roof gables I keep seeing; they look...difficult.

I also don't know what it is about Bern; this is like the fourth or fifth product from that specific region I've come to admire greatly, despite not having a particular fascination or connection to the place. I should really visit some time, since the place seems to just exude excellence (beer, housing, guns, hand tools, machine tools, the list goes on...)

TCB