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? Lishman has lived in his own incredible underground home design for decades now with the pictures to prove it. His eco-friendly earth home consists of a framework of steel trusses covered in spray-on concrete and covered with tar and a layer of plastic for water protection.
‘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. The design concept revolves around privacy but also around maintaining natural beauty and the seclusion that comes with being in a truly natural setting.
Earth Sheltered Earth Sheltered Homes "Another type of building is emerging: one that actually heals the scars of its own construction. It conserves rainwater and fuel and it provides a habitat for creatures other than the human one. Maybe it will catch on, maybe it won't. We'll see." - Malcolm Wells, 2002. The earth sheltered house uses the ground as insulating blanket which effectively protects it from temperature extremes, wind, rain and extreme weather events. Fifteen feet below ground the soil maintains a fairly constant temperature equal to the annual average temperature of the area's surface air. There are two types of earth sheltered building. Honingham Earth Sheltered Social Housing. Looks like vertical placed logs are helping to support the berm on the right. Earth sheltered home with conventional facade. Earth sheltered home, as above. The facade may accommodate any architectural styling of the home owners choosing. An award winning earth shelter dwelling by Cam Architects. Casa Organica.
Subtle Subterranean House is Underground & Understated Many underground homes have relatively extreme designs, either due to ultra-wealthy clients who give their architects a (literal or at least metaphorical) blank check to design a luxury dream house, or because of existing conditions (for instance; retrofitting an old military base and/or missile silo to be a new home). This modest alternative shows the power of simplicity in a nonetheless remarkable minimalist home in the ground. BCHO Architects started by carving a basic box-shaped void into the earth, holding a place for the space with likewise simple retaining walls of rough and raw board-formed concrete. A side stairway starts the sequence of movement down into this space, slowly taking into increasingly more enclosed areas. Along the way, the naturalistic texture of this bounding structure is reprised in real-dirt exterior courtyard floors, rammed-earth walls outside and natural-finish wooden furniture inside.
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.
Scandinavian Homes Like Real-Life Hobbit Houses Curb appeal: cozy exterior, extensive windows, and a green roof? These adorable homes prove that a grassy canopy can make the perfect ceiling addition to any house. Green roofs are traditional in many Nordic countries throughout Europe, so much so that there is an annual competition to determine the best green roof project, which is hosted by the Scandinavian Green Roof Association (SGRA). These images feature some of the most stunning living roofs that can be found around the area. These green coverings are not only an aesthetic trend however—the feature offers a variety of environmental and financial perks. The roofs absorb rain water, cool the home in the summer and retain heat in the winter, provide insulation, and can even last longer than your typical shingles. Above: Hofskirkja, Iceland Thjorsardalur, Iceland Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland Mikladalur, Faroe Islands Renndølsetra, Norway Saksun Village, Streymoy, Faroe Islands Norway Torshavn, Faroe Islands Skalholt, Iceland via [Fubiz]
Fallingwater Cottages, or: How to Win a Design Competition The right answer is only obvious in retrospect, as with this wonderfully-integrated and highly-contextual solution to a difficult problem: what does one make that neither adds to nor subtracts from the most famous house in American architectural history? Frank Lloyd Wright’s own autobiographical words gave the winning group, Padkau Architects, the first hint: “No house should ever be on a hill or on anything …. It should be of the hill. Another clue comes from the nature of the project – it had needed to be small and green, require few active systems and less electricity than a typical home, and ideally integrating natural heating and cooling techniques. The underground homes proposed are tucked into grassy mounds, blending in with the surrounding landscape and providing minimalist shelters for visiting artists-in-residence, architects and educators.
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. Geothermal energy provides power, heating and cooling during much of the year – making bills a fraction of a typical (much smaller) home.
design for wind, and sway click 2x The engineers for Chicago's future third-tallest skyscraper had issued a warning: Wind tunnel tests showed that the plan for the building, three thin, interconnected high-rises designed by star architect Jeanne Gang, had a flaw: High winds would push it around, making people inside feel like they were on a storm-tossed ship. According to the engineers, the design for the Vista tower "would result in building occupants feeling ill and possibly afraid for their safety," Chicago's zoning administrator, Patricia Scudiero, wrote in an April 26 letter to Jack George, a lawyer for project's developers. To prevent that, the developers requested — and the city OKed — an unusual change to the already-approved plan for the building: The 83rd floor of the 98-story, 1,198-foot East Wacker Drive tower will be an empty space that Chicago's famous winds can blow through. The skinny towers put residents where they want to be — near a window with knockout views. "Chandeliers would be swinging.