10 Reasons why EarthShips are a Good Idea..

I agree, but not just hurricane zones. Its always puzzled me that on one hand we hear people banging on about shortage of land and open space, and on the other hand, we build on top of the land we have.

Take a typical urban/suburban semi detached house like mine. It has a small front garden, a bigger back garden, a driveway, and of course the house itself. That's quite a big footprint. If most of the house was underground, with just a porch and lightwell above the surface, then my garden and car parking space could fit into the land above the house, thus taking up far less space. If a new build was to be done like this, you could have the plumbing for the ground source heat pump at the bottom, then the house built onto that (still below ground level), then the garden on top of that. The house would be storm proof (although I'm not sure about if it was in a flood risk area), super insulation with the earth surrounding it and on top of it, and the insulation on the roof would maintain itself, seeing as it would be the actual garden.

 

Cave's

 

Good idea but wouldn't it be a bit hot and dark?!?

Val

 

I think after considering the water table underground living would would work in most areas ..... But would it affect fracking and mining rights contracts, if we had acres of underground homes?
If so I don't think it would be adopted "en masse" as land may only be sold once to the surface owner, not twice as is current practice.

 

During my time in Oz I spent a few weeks in Coober Peedy. It could be close to freezing at dawn but 45°c by noon so it was the norm to live in caves to maintain a steady and comfortable temperature.

 

Just found this. http://www.lowcarbon.co.uk/earthship-brighton
Interesting.

 

Grand designs channel 4 now, car tyre house! Freaky that we are just discussing them!

 

I don't know about hot. The ground temperature remains fairly constant, but warm air rises so with careful design, a vent could allow that warm air to escape. Much like the old advice of opening the loft hatch during hot weather

As for being dark, I've seen modern designs that utilise clever positioning of skylights and clever use of refractive materials to carry light from outside to inside with a good distribution.

 

My son lives in 'Tornado Alley' in Columbus, Ohio. All the houses there are built with basements specifically for this reason.