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. Some of these are built as continuous strip communities, a kind of eco-suburb that looks from a distance like a simple set of rolling hills. From an energy generation standpoint, all of the standard sustainable solutions are also available: geothermal, water, solar and wind.
‘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.
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 Cities: 3500 Years of Cappadocian Cave Homes Cities, empires and religions have risen and fallen around these unique underground havens once used by early Christians to hide from Roman armies, yet they remains occupied to this day – 100 square miles with 200+ underground villages and tunnel towns complete with hidden passages, secret rooms and ancient temples and a remarkably storied history of each new civilization building on the work of the last. The fields of architecture and urban design would do well to center their sustainable sights on this unique site – few structures outside of this area in Cappadocia have survived for so long. Some of these buildings go up to five full stories underground and date back to Roman times or beyond, though many caves were carved out by human hands long before their empire arrived. (Images via AlaskanDude) Centered in modern day Turkey, this region has passed between hands many times.
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.
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. Belonging to it. 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.
Ocean Beach-Front Home & Rooftop Patio Pool Design Imagine your own private luxury swimming pool both isolated from the adjacent rocky ocean beach but also elevated far above it with amazing views out in every direction. This beautiful beachfront house makes the most of its proximity to the water as well as its lofty position on an adjacent hillside. On the rural coast of Mexico, the Universe House by Tatiana Bilboa is the ultimate getaway home – but is unfortunately not for rent or sale, leaving the lucky owners to relax and vacation whenever they wish. Viewed from above the simple layout is very clear: four living spaces with corner courtyards around the central swimming pool feature. A combination of cozy and private residential spaces below contrasts sharply with the wide-open vistas available from the common patio pool area above.
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.
UK Celebrity Plans on Building Huge Underground Eco-Home Shaped like an abstract flower and amazing from any aerial view, this underground house is nearly invisible – a rolling hill in the landscape – viewed from on the ground and all around. From below it blends in seamlessly with the natural surroundings. From above it is a beacon in the night. And inside, well, the pictures show it all. At nearly ten thousand square feet, this house designed by Make Architects for all-star football player Gary Neville is as architecturally daring as it is eco-friendly – it aims to be the first carbon-neutral house in all of Great Britain. Local materials and traditional construction techniques will reduce transportation and technology waste while geothermal heat, solar roof panels and wind turbines will generate sustainable energy on the site. This may be the boldest, biggest and best modern underground home plan to date.
Modern Rustic: Modular Underground Forest Home Design Designed in a rigorous structural grid, this rural modern home by FGMF contends with a variety of demanding contextual conditions and resolves them in a way that is internally elegant and connects the house (green-roofed and partly underground) with the surrounding natural environment. The extension of green grass onto the roof ties the home into the adjacent hillside from which it seems to emerge. From the lookout at the top of the hill the house is almost completely camouflaged against the backdrop of trees, mountains and sky above. The introduction of a regular structural grid with infilled rooms and exterior patio and deck spaces made it possible to bring nature into the house complex itself and to keep from disturbing critical parts of the site ecosystem that limit the buildable footprint. The approach from the road most clearly reveals the rigid structural grid that permeates the entire project.
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.
Modern + Green = Unique Underground Home Design Plan Underground homes tend to conjure mental images of hobbit holes and otherwise rounded, earthen residences. This extremely modern house by KWK Promes defies popular conventions and, despite its organic green roof, is constructed of clean lines and clear shapes. Viewed from above or around, the house blends wonderfully into the landscape – even the gentle curves and straight lines seem to work with the horizon and trees in the distance. The grass also absorbs moisture and helps regulate temperatures inside of the home. The barrier between inside and outside is highly permeable, providing continuous connections for residents with the natural world around them through giant sheets of floor-to-ceiling glass. Best of all (for the owners anyway): the lush green roof is only accessible from inside of the house through a set of secure stairs, reserving it as a private getaway for the home.
This House Rocks: Hilltop Home Cut into Steep Stone Slope This is not your typical retirement home. Built for a retiring pair of philosophers transitioning from their daily intellectual grind to comfortable country living, this house rocks in an entirely more extraordinary way than a rocking chair ever could. Boasting over ten thousand square feet of living space, you would never guess just how much this maze-like dwelling extends into the slope around it. The structure sits beneath the surface not only as a not to the aesthetic environment but also as a sustainable response to the need for natural shade in the hot desert-caliber sun of summers in Peru. Clean contemporary spaces cut through the rural rustic surroundings. Longhi Architects carried the austere and linear look of the outside to the interior spaces as well, filling the halls with stone walls and box-like rock shelving – even the dining room table is a huge singular stone set into the center of a communal eating and living space.