OK. Then I think we have decided. Now the question is if we can find the perfect design.
My suggestion would be that we try to make the garden with the shaft in one corner, and the diagonally opposite corner outside the aura, and start by building two sides, one inside (by the shaft) and one outside the aura. Would this be at all possible, @silveroak? I am not sure about distances and precise locations. Maybe I can work it out from the map and the books tomorrow, when I am less sleepy.
If you look at the 3d image, the middle level plus the superimposition of the upper level defines the aura, but it extends up and down through the entire hill- if you want a sloped shaft you can have the entrance outside the aura, if it is straight up an down it will be inside, but you can easily have a garden where the building is outside it. It looks to me like about 10 meters from the stairs to outside the aura by shortest distance, so either set of plans would work. Remember that the area given by the charter is a half mile in diameter, so that would be a long wall to encompass it (8294 ft, roughly 1500 paces game terms)
so for now a single 2 story building at excellent quality (having seen pictures of period stonework in malta I would say they definitely have the skill) for 50 pounds construction cost which we will call roughly a manor in terms of game mechanisms- that will house up to 50 points of people before requiring expansion, and with 2 sanctums in the cave handling 5 points apiece for now...
Sanctum with lab for Marcus is not mentioned. Does it fit in the £50/50pt manor house constructed thus far? Furthermore, the lab must be inside the aura, even if the covenfolk live/outside.
If that is all taken care of, it is fine.
Otherwise I'd say we double that. We have two manor houses @ £50/50 pts in an L-shape. One building inside the aura for library and sanctum and one building outside.
The total inhabitants points we need to house includes Marcus and his lab, far as i'm understanding things. So with just the buildings proposed (and two of us living in the cavern) we can more than double our size before we need another building. Also, he said "It looks to me like about 10 meters from the stairs to outside the aura by shortest distance, so either set of plans would work." so that sounds conclusive that we can have the half of the building housing your lab in the aura and the half housing covenfolk outside the aura but maybe I'm misunderstanding what was written.
A magus needs 500 sq feet + living quarters + his share of common areas for his 5pts. To me that sounds like more than 2½ times what the 2pt grog needs. But anyway, if @silveroak included Marcus' lab, then it is all fine.
We only need to "house" the inhabitants points from people. a 0 upkeep lab counts as 10 inhabitants points for income & expense functions but as long as the floor space is there for the lab it houses the magus.
No, a lab is 10 lab points which costs £1/year to maintain. Ten inhabitant points is £10/year.
Do you have a page ref for the floor space included claim? I cannot find a cannon answer to this.
So a lab doesn't count as inhabitants points at all? I think that's proof enough. 500sq ft is about a 22.5 ft square. It's not huge. 1 inhabitant point is a person living in servants quarters or a small shack/hut/hovel. The scale of the change in station cost is probably too small for realism but those are the rules.
for a spring covenant a magus is 5 points of inhabitants and a grog is 1. It does not translate directly to square feet since a higher quality building of the same size can house more people- an average house is one pound ad one point of occupants- a single grog (possibly including an unaccounted for spouse). A superior house of the same size can house 2 points of inhabitants. Presumably this mans living space is more comfortable and efficient, so more people can use it comfortably - this isn't simply about craming people into a minimal space after all. A flawless house of the same size can house 10 points of inhabitants- at this point I would assume some practical limitation and figure that would be a magus (5 points), a craftsperson (2 points) and 3 servant for example, or perhaps a summer magus. Where the rules don't cover things is in labs of increased size- from what I can find online a typical manor might be about 5,700 sq ft of floor space between 3 floors, so labs can be reasoned in especially when they are of exceptional size. You have a typical sized manor house consisting of 50 points of living capability, so a typical 500 sq ft lab is just under 1/10 the space- close enough to be included in the magus allocation and assume that differing quality of space is part of the equation, but if you want to expand the lab it will reduce the available inhabitation capability of the manor. Considering that after the magi sanctums in the caves are taken into account you have 20 points of inhabitants to put into 50 points worth of space this should not be a problem... and your magus is 1/4 of that total.
5000 sq feet total; that is about 2500 sq feet per floor. About 250 m², for example 8m x 30m (ish) rectangle. If that, eventually, becomes one side (with one corner), the garden is 22x22 m², which sounds reasonable.
3 floor at 1900 sq ft each, with some variation, a "typical" manor house could be a few hundred sq ft larger in total...
Three floors?
The it has to be on the Northern side, lest it blocks the sun from the garden.
Is that compatible with having one end within the aura and one outside?
it is, but you are in the tropics- at the peak of summer the sun will be to the north.
Not in the real world, no. All of the Mediterranean are North of the tropic of Cancer.
But you have a point, which I did not think about. We are close enough to get the Sun almost straight above in Summer, so that it only matters in Winter.
Is the 3rd floor a basement or cellar?
no, ground floor and two floors above it
a basement would be an extra 1900 sq ft, probably storage instead of living space, a lab there would be considered subterranean, same as the caves...
Ah, that was just my first thought when I read 3 floors since previous discussion had mentioned two. No worries.
So mentioning labs you said Taliha's can be up to Size +3 (I imagine I would not expand the lab into the "decorated hall" until/if I needed that space) and now Archimedes' lab is Size +10. When talking about Archimedes doing what he just did you mentioned a free structure virtue, Auspicious Shape or Superior Construction I believe, and, obviously, Subterranean applies. In looking for info on the Hypogeum I found some research article about how the room labeled "Acoustic Hall" has an acoustic resonance with particular frequencies, I'm curious if this could provide something to an Im art specialization though neither Auspicious Shape (+1 Vim) or Superior Construction (no art bonuses) provide anything of the sort, perhaps we could vary Auspicious shape in this instance? Not sure if another written lab virtue would seem to apply.
The acoustic hall will have an auspicious shape, and obviously subterranean, looking into other naturally occurring virtues/flaws
The acoustic chamber by itself is size 0
the unfinshed hall is another 500 sq ft and would bring you to size 3 and let you live in the decorated hall...
the decorated hall is about 500 sq ft... it looks like my previous size estimation was short...
you could have a size:4 and still room for living space
if you use just the acoustic hall then you will not be able to take spacious, which may or may not be a problem... especially if empty becomes an accompanying requirement
actually as I go through it, I forgot that auspicious shape is a +1 virtue, meaning you have to expand to the +3 space, but also means you won't have to take the empty flaw...