Good evening and Happy Holidays to all; 
                                                                 I'm looking to build a 1600sq ft hybrid(concrete and timber frame)passive solar home in south west missouri(zone 6). I plan on doing the majority of the work, using hardwoods from my property(so far so good). Finding a proven design is paramount, and I haven't found many soarces.Any ideas /advice would be appreciated.

Not sure what you mean by "a proven design". If you are looking for something that has been done already, then it is just a matter of looking and searching and looking.....

If you want a professional who will design you a custom home, then you may very well need an architect. Short of that you might do well with a home designer who is well versed in Energy-Efficient Design. A home designer could probably meld a couple plans together fairly well. What you don't want to do is hire someone, architect or not who can't show you a portfolio which has the same types of home in it that you are thinking about (i.e., the portfolio contains energy-efficient homes, concrete homes, timberframes, etc).

Once you narrow it down to two or three people whose work you like but don't really know which one will do a better job on your project, you might consider asking each one what they would want for drawing up their concept. That way you would have a choice of several paths as opposed to being wedded to the one thing your architect/designer came up with. This costs a bit more, but is well worth it if you want to be in that house for a while. I can give a few more pointers if you want to do this.

Good evening all; I guess I didn't explain myself properly in my initial questions..... my mistake. Back in the early 80's there was a competition in Florida funded by various government and private interests, and participated in by architects,engineering schools etc. to design "cracker style " homes, which by nature were passive solar long before the phrase ever existed. The drawings submitted were assessed, with the finalists entrys, actually built and evaluated. The winners(there were 4,sq ft catagories),only reward being,the recognition. The drawings had to be complete and were the property of the State  of Florida, who sold the cartoons for 500.00. SOOOOOO, to make a short story long, what I'm really asking is: Has there been any passive solar competitions funded by HUD or maybe Dept of Energy or maybe architectural schools? Thats what I meant by a "proven design". There's science and testing to back the claims.

This may be what you are looking for.

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SolarHomes/91HomesBook/SolPasPlans91.htm

These plansets aren't detailed enough to build off, but a home designer could do that for you.

The person who did the work to put these on the web mentions that many of these plans were built, but you'd have to look at the site more closely than I did to find out more about them and if you could get your hands on complete plansets from someone.

Posted By muddobber on 26 Dec 2010 10:53 PM
Good evening and Happy Holidays to all; 
                                                                 I'm looking to build a 1600sq ft hybrid(concrete and timber frame)passive solar home in south west missouri(zone 6). I plan on doing the majority of the work, using hardwoods from my property(so far so good). Finding a proven design is paramount, and I haven't found many soarces.Any ideas /advice would be appreciated.

you might check with the Florida Solar Energy Center , they provide assistance thru out the US

http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/

Choosing the right architect is an important task, especially if you are going to start building a home from scratch. You will have to look carefully because you will have this architect in your life for a long time, and you will end up both loving and hating him. The architect is one of the most important professionals to have a good connection with because he will try to translate your dream into a building. The last thing you want is your dream home turned into a nightmare.

No matter what architect you choose, it's still important to keep them from resting on their laurels and relying on yesterday's green technology. Here's an article we wrote on the topic. http://www.greentechbuyer.org/blog/architects-dont-know-everything-about-green-technology.html

Ventura IT,

Is this an advertisement or does it just read like one?  Regardless of what it is, what is it doing here in this topic?

yep... that's a much better way to put it. just bear in mind that what they usually do has already been done. and when i mean done, it means they've done it right, improved, approved, and accepted by laws, standards, and most especially the environment. do more research, it will pay off in the long run.. have a great day ahead...


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http://www.plansandblueprint.com/

Just Googled passive solar home and got a ton of results.  What are you looking for beyond that?  Or have you already found it by now?