20 of the Most Amazing Underground House Designs
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Careful planning and thoughtful design choices contribute to a comfortable and practical living environment in underground homes. Underground homes also drastically reduce the number of natural resources that go into the homes we build. For a 2,600 square foot traditional home, an average of 16,380 board feet of lumber goes toward framing alone.
Unique design opportunities
Proper waterproofing and drainage systems are incorporated to mitigate any potential water infiltration issues. In arid and desert regions like Phoenix, AZ, where scorching summers and limited water resources pose challenges, underground houses excel in their natural insulation properties. These homes remain cooler during hot days, providing relief from the intense heat. Additionally, underground houses can incorporate rainwater harvesting systems to mitigate water scarcity issues. The thick layer of earth surrounding underground houses provides excellent sound insulation, creating a peaceful and quiet living environment.
Earth Home Builder
The Subterranean technique involves building the house entirely below ground level. This method is often employed in areas with extreme weather conditions or when homeowners prioritize maximum privacy and minimal impact on the landscape. Subterranean houses are hidden beneath the earth’s surface, offering a unique and discreet living environment. Each construction technique presents its distinct advantages, contributing to the allure and innovation of underground living. Mountainous and hilly terrains pose unique challenges for construction. Underground houses can be integrated into slopes, taking advantage of the natural landscape to provide stability and blend harmoniously with the surroundings.
Legal and Regulatory Requirements for Building Underground Dwellings
It makes the home feel like a welcoming place that can also offer a lot of protection. They create an umbrella under the earth that is meant to be a layer of insulation for the home so it’ll hold more cool and warm air as needed. The man who is in the video touring this home is the author of the book The $50 and Up Underground House Book. So if you are looking for a quaint hobbit house to use as a full-time home or even as a shelter, then you’ll want to scroll through this tutorial. I’ve shared one person’s tutorial on building a hobbit house in your backyard above already. So if you would like to have your own underground hobbit house, then this tutorial could show you how to achieve this on your own in very vivid detail.
In the meantime they lived in a big dehumidified tent inside the cave, which once served as a roller skating rink. The couple faced considerable hurdles with getting fresh air and meeting egress requirements, it’s all quite the story. Make sure to avoid the five common building code violations and common National Electric Code violations. Well, these people took that dream one step further and built themselves a house in a hill. This is a really neat idea to have a self-sustainable home underground.
Construction Techniques for Underground Homes
Over in Australia, abandoned mines were converted into homes, which can help people deal with the heat of the Australian desert. Much of the home was built with concrete, which presented problems of its own. It was a three bedroom, 2,000-square foot home that held a number of temperature sensors and gauges to measure humidity inside and out, as well as calculate energy consumption to the last watt. Some years later we now have these amazing devices that will turn your abode into a smart home. But what is so amazing about this gorgeous home is how well it is hidden into the hillside.
Underground home in Erie County could be yours for $900,000 - News 5 Cleveland WEWS
Underground home in Erie County could be yours for $900,000.
Posted: Mon, 20 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
Unique and Functional Underground Houses That Will Amaze You
To me, earth shelters embody what simple living is about by encouraging an off-grid, eco-friendly, private life. Another thing you should do is plan your electricity earlier than you might for a traditional house. With an earth shelter, you can run certain elements through a conduit on the actual shell of your house.
But when I saw these prefab Hobbit houses, I knew someone had shared in the same fear and wanted to make underground building a little easier. If you are looking for an underground house idea but would prefer to have something inexpensive and prefab, then consider one of these shipping container homes. However, they do offer lots of great tips to make sure that if or when you build an underground home that you do it right so you can enjoy it for years to come.
Underground Homes Have Less Upkeep
You can expect to have a life-changing experience in this home nestled in the beauty of nature. The house has been built to offer its residents the best retreat that one could envision. If you love a place where you can sit and enjoy the silence starring at the beautiful view outside then this place has a lot to offer you. The two neighboring hills are now part of the underground home, they protect it from the elements while it takes full advantage of them from a thermal point of view. A small residential ensemble, one that nestles a total of 9 houses which are connected with one another through sets of stairs, all wrapped around a small lake, lush vegetation, a loot of greenery.
In a penetrational bermed design, earth covers the entire house, except where there are windows and doors. The house is usually built at ground level, and earth is built up (or bermed) around and on top of it. This design allows cross-ventilation and access to natural light from more than one side of the house. Underground homes may not be very traditional, but neither are tiny homes.
However, underground homes are not actually the dark, humid, cave-like dwellings you may be picturing. These homes can be avant-garde, energy efficient, and designed in a classy, aesthetically appealing way, which is why they’re loved by people all over the world. Often times this type of housing is preferred in other countries when there is the presence of extreme weather conditions. While some underground houses or dwellings are entirely submerged below the earth’s surface, not all underground houses are.
And, no, even though a living roof has a thin layer of dirt, the roof is a separate unit from the earth berm surrounding the home, and so I would still not classify it as an underground home. An earth-sheltered home is one that uses a large quantity of earth (dirt, soil, subsoil, etc.) as a protective barrier on a good portion of the exterior of the house. The exact portion varies greatly from one design to another as you will see shortly.
The town, widely known for its opal mines, is also unbearably hot, with temperatures routinely as high at 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). Decades ago, local miners struggling with the heat experimented with building underground shelters. The natural coolness from the surrounding earth led to dozens of underground shelters, which continue to be inhabited today.
This home in Wales get dubbed the Teletubby House because it bears a resemblance to the old TV character. This house is another really unique and gorgeous option for an underground home. This article is another amazing resource that will give you more insight and helpful facts if you are interested in living underground. This article is a wonderful collection of the different interiors and exteriors you can have with an underground home. Basically, this article shows multiple different underground varieties, but I like the one that has a nice little porch with it.
By blending the structure with the natural topography and landscape features, homeowners can create visually stunning and seamlessly integrated dwellings. One of the primary benefits of building an underground home is its exceptional energy efficiency. By harnessing the earth’s natural insulation properties, underground dwellings require significantly less energy for heating and cooling compared to traditional above-ground structures.
These earth shelters are built into surrounding hills but still have one outside facing wall. While this model has a smaller interior, it’s great for minimalists who want to try living with less. These earth shelters are unique in the way that they incorporate natural elements into the inside of the home as well as the outside. The house is fully submerged in the earth, with interior walls lined with beige and white stone. It offers low visibility and uses trees, bark, and plants throughout the inside of the house. Contractors will often build light tubes into the roofs of the structure to pull in sunlight and distribute it throughout the interior of the underground home.
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