Underground Housing

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"In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit.
Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell,
nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or eat:
it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."

Please see the page for Malcolm Wells for one architect's underground houses.

Underground homes have several advantages over homes built above the ground:

• There is no need to lay a foundation, which saves a huge amount of labour and material
• The walls are earth, so that saves a lot more building material
• The thermal mass effect of the earth stabilizes the temperature. Earth cools and heats more slowly than the surrounding air. If you dig 2m (6 foot 6 inches) into the ground, the temperature is always - day and night, summer and winter - steady at that climate's average. A well-designed underground home should need no energy for heating or cooling
• They are easy to build.
• They are unaffected by wind, hail and hurricanes
• Pipes are not exposed to atmospheric temperature and don't freeze
• They require little maintenance
• They are soundproof
• They are relatively fireproof
• It can be complemented with a greenhouse that takes advantage of the heat already there (e.g. greenhouse-facing kitchen)

Because greenhouses must be kept warm, underground greenhouses make a lot of sense.

Pictures: [1], [2], Ziggurat-type

Mike Oehler's methods

Information about Mike Oehler's methods was removed after OSE received a Cease And Desist letter from the author.

Linkfest

• Performance Building Systems, Inc.
• Underground Homes
• SubsurfaceBuildings.com
• Bill Lishman's underground domes, also featured on Treehugger; built with ferrocement and then reburied.
• Wikipedia: Underground Living
• "Earth-Sheltered Housing", Washington Energy Extension Service (1984)
• Underground Homes Gazette Articles and info about underground and earth sheltered housing.