Fallingwater Cottages, or: How to Win a Design Competition. Secret Rooms: Cool New Condo Hidden in Old Townhouse. Classic collides with contemporary and historic meets modern under the roof of one unbelievably cool townhouse property – part infill project, part retrofit, part adaptive reuse, this is a dream space with secret rooms for people who love cozy remodeled lofts and private luxury interiors all at the same time.
Beneath pealing paint and crumbling red bricks on the front of his history row-house facade lies an incredible residence, reinforced with stunning steel supports and remodeled inside and out with modern materials, furniture and fixtures. A movable glass enclosure creates a pleasantly-ambiguous indoor-and-outdoor area that bridges the open gap in the (elongated and narrow) plan from front to back, resulting in something that works as an exterior garden or interior greenhouse. New wood shelving stretches from wall to wall in the renovated structure while metal bookcases and staircases line the spaces and pierce from one room to the next. Cave Homes for Sale: 700-Year-Old Carved Rocks of Iran.
Vacation property may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Iran, but tucked away in Kandovan are some of the most amazing houses you could ever hope to buy – seven centuries old cave homes carved right out of the local stone formations that jut up from the Earth, much like in Cappadocia. Many spaces are for rent to tourists and others are even for sale at (perhaps) surprisingly cheap prices. It is a popular resort area with hotels, restaurants and a special mineral water famed for its healing properties. Some of the architecture is above the surface but much is also carved out underground where temperatures are l0wer during the day. The architecture itself is eclectic mix, blending traditional masonry and stone-carving techniques with more updated doors and windows and in some cases quite contemporary fixtures and modern furniture – not exactly the cave dwellings of our ancient ancestors.
Huge Cave House: Unique Modern Underground Mega-Home. Somewhat notorious since being put up for sale on eBay, this cave dwelling is unique in all kinds of amazing ways – not least of which for the fact that it currently contains a curious hybrid home with a natural stone roof, modern infill walls and assorted antique furniture and furnishings. But watch out: sand falls from above, so umbrellas are mandatory for kitchen and dining spaces. Before its time as a hybrid-style home, this historic locale played host to famous 1980s rock singers (who performed on a still-extant underground stag) as well as a now-defunct 1950s roller rink. Today, it still sits on multiple acres of picturesque rural land and features fourteen waterfalls … as well as the 17,000 square feet of livable underground cave space. Geothermal energy provides power, heating and cooling during much of the year – making bills a fraction of a typical (much smaller) home.
A living area sits in front, with bedrooms lofted above to also access natural light. UK Celebrity Plans on Building Huge Underground Eco-Home. Underground Home Design: How to Build & Bury a House. Living underground sounds disturbing – cavernous designs, claustrophobic images of cramped quarters and fuzzy pictures with low light levels come quickly to mind. A well-planned underground home, however, can be designed precisely around these problems to have all of the advantages of a cozy and private above-ground house as well as the sustainable and structural benefits of an fully-enclosed living space – entirely under the surface of the Earth.
William Lishman sums up the design advantages nicely: “Why build underground? There are many advantages to earth integrated architecture. With the earth as insulation, heating and cooling energy requirements are significantly reduced, especially in windy areas. Underground homes offer protection from storms, never have to painted, shingled or have the eaves troughs cleaned out!
Lishman has lived in his own incredible underground home design for decades now with the pictures to prove it. Going Green Underground: Eco-Retro Earth House Designs. They may look a bit dated at first, or at least more whimsical than required for functional living. Still, these earth houses have more to offer than custom curves and a unique aesthetic – including a set of design philosophies, strategies and tactics that are far from just superficial nods to sustainable trends. The designs take everything into account from fire and earthquake protection to integral insulation-efficient arches and buffer rooms for energy-free temperature control. While not every Erdhaus is actually built under the existing ground on a site, they are all tied to their earthen surroundings by sloping sheaths of greenery. Grass-covered walls curve up and continue as green roofs along the tops of each structure. The resulting contiguous thermal mass of this all-in-one exterior wall-and-roof system helps to conserve heating and cooling power.
‘Invisible’ Set of Green Homes to be Hidden Underground. Going green does not just mean eco-friendly building systems and sustainable construction materials. It can also imply a blending with the landscape – an implied recognition that our structures come second to nature. That, at least, is the idea behind this set of remarkable modern underground home designs commissioned by Michael Hill. The restrictions on their construction are severe with good reason: to preserve the rolling hillscape of this former golf course, all of the houses will be nearly entirely underground and environment-disturbing exterior amenities (such as spas or swimming pools) are forbidden as they would spoil the surrounding landscapes.
Seventeen homes in total are planned for this expansive stretch of grassy hills. The design concept revolves around privacy but also around maintaining natural beauty and the seclusion that comes with being in a truly natural setting. Underground Living: Buried Secrets of a Stone Desert Home. There are people living underground everywhere from the Swiss Alps to Las Vegas and the Caves of Cappadocia to the Wild West of America, but few strike such a stunning balance between their natural-landscape surroundings and artificial-dwelling interiors as this semi-subterranean stone home camouflaged, buried and half-hidden in th arid desert climate of rural Greece. The overall shape of this long rectangular structure responds to green needs (controlled natural light, heat and cooling cross-winds) as well as the slopes of two adjacent hillsides – a simple flat, closed and box-like plan that remains unassuming in the relatively bare surroundings.
The house emerges only in the center, and even then looks as much like a half-buried ruin as a contemporary underground home.