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Would there be any special considerations in building a guitar especially for alternate tunings? Theoretically there would be less tension if tuning down. Would this difference in tension be enough to make some structural changes or is the difference not really relevant? Any thoughts?

Frank, I play a lot in DADGad and find that the best solution is to use balanced mixed string sets to keep normal tension on a dedicated guitar. I just use my standard parabolic bracing - for greater attack - on an ordinary OM.

No need to change the guitar just change the strings.

Colin   Colin S38696.540775463

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Actually, the best thing to do for alternate tunings is a fanned fret system. The Colorado Luthiers visited Michael Bashkins shop and he showed us how to cut fanned frets, and reason behind fanned frets. I played one his guitars that was fanned fret in a CGCGCE tuning and it allowed me to play at almost full tension in this tuning. So the strings feel tighter and less buzzing in the lower tunings. I do a lot in DADGAD too and love playing in alternate tunings. You should research on fanned frets. I know Paul Davis does this, hopefully he will chime in. Good luck!
Tracy

Tuning down works much better with longer scales for obvious reasons, I
find it extremely hard to play in tune in ornkey tuning, or even DADGAD, on
a 24.9" scale guitar for example. 25.4" works better, and even better would
be a 25.7". I just built my first guitar with a 26.5" scale for that purpose
(mostly ornkey tuning) and it works very well, the difference with 25.4" is
not drastic enough to affect left hand technique dramatically. The fan fret
system is very tempting, I can imagine a 25.4"/27"compounded scale would
be great for tuning the low E to C.

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Laurent Brondel
West Paris, Maine - USA
http://www.laurentbrondel.com/