I advise an architect but one with experience using the materials you want. You'll spend a lot of time with this person so hopefully they'll design to your priorities. They still have to make it buildable to code which could influance the exact design but still you should be able to get what you want. It's the architect's job to design it to code and be able to explain it to the county. More than likely it'll have to be engineered which will help in the permit process. Of course a good architect comes with a price $$. Tom

I just spoke to my landlord who happens to be a retired professor in acrhitecture (lucky me). He designed his own house according to codes that he got a local library. He was doing it on weekends. It took him about a year to get the project approved with East Bay.

He told me that arhitects charge about 5% of the cost of the house which translates into 20K for a 400K house.

I guess since I am not pressed for time I could start the design work myself and see where it goes. Got myself nice professinal construction books. I should be able to figure out CAD programs.