Up North and Off Grid

In many countries the foundation of a house is a matter of pouring a slab of concrete on grade, or putting up some pillars, and calling it a day. Here in Finland, the latter is popular for summer cottages that are not year round in use, since it is a low cost and effective way to build a foundation for buildings that don't have strict requirements for winter. Slab on grade is often used in warmer climates, but even there insulation of the slab is becoming more important to prevent energy losses through the floor.  The end result, with the first logs being placed. You can imagine that in a cold climate, I need a foundation that not only is designed to hold up the house, but one that is engineered to prevent heat losses as much as possible, and one that is built in such a way so that any water is drained away from the foundation itself. Having water in contact with the foundation is not only problematic for moisture coming up through the foundation, successive freeze/thaw cycles woul