Red iron building – GreenBuildingAdvisor

Just joined today, hoping I can get some input from the experts.

We have a lake house and 7 acres across the street that we are retiring to. The lake house is too small for all of our hobbies (woodworking, quilting etc etc) and once in a while we run out of room for visitors.

We want to build a large red iron building (we have a good local company that manufactures them in Northwest AL) and use some of the space in the 5000 to 6000 sq foot structure as living space. The ceilings on the building are quite high (16 foot @ lowest point, 23 feet in the middle). I kind of plan to use this space as something I can play with lots of things: ground mount solar/off grid etc etc.

It seems there is a good possibility this could be very energy efficient if done right for the living space.

My primary question this: The insulation options primarily are fiberglass (up to R 30 or so if you go double layer) or closed cell. I lean towards the fiberglass for the shell….but should I go R30 on the shell and less insulation on the living space or vice versa?