There are lots of interesting examples of earth shelters throughout history, many are still lived in around the world.
The Mandan Earth Lodge was the permanent home. The TeePee was just for hunting expeditions during good weather…
Even here in the USA, the Mandan indians of Dakota, famous for their mobile Tee-Pees, used earth sheltered dwellings as their permanent homes.
Imagine whole villages of these things…
Imagine explorers finding whole villages of earth sheltered homes…
After the natives were displaced by settlers, earth sheltered homes continued to be popular for the same reasons.
The Laura Ingalls Dugout on the banks of Plumb Creek, 1874, MN.
In 1874-6, Laura Ingalls (Wilder) lived in a Dugout (before moving to Iowa after three years of crop failure). She used her memories of Plum Creek to write “On the Banks of Plumb Creek”.
This sod dugout was built in Nebraska, 1890. The wagon parked on the roof has a load of Sod.
This dougout was built on South Loup River in 1890. You can get more info from “Mother Earth News“…
I am certainly not the first person to think that it would be a good idea to live underground. Most primitive cultures figured out that a cave or earth covered dwelling had many benefits. Even today, many cultures around the world (particularly those in dry areas with extreme climate and a shortage of wood) still consider this to be the most reasonable way to build a home. I will slowly add “History” and “Around the World” pages under this one… Find them in the Pages tree in the side bar or under the pull downs at the top of the page.
Bugs was always safest in his underground home
The quaint earth sheltered home of Alfred the Hedgehog
Fiction also has its share of earth sheltered living. Tolkien is famous for his Hobbit and Jules Verne had “The Undeground City“. Kids are comfortable with earth sheltered homes because so many kids shows (telletubbies) (Franklin) (Alfred Hedgehog) (Fraggle Rock) feature them. Bugs Bunny was always safest in his underground home. To be fair, these underground homes were chosen because these characters were based on animals (even made up ones) that lived underground, but I still enjoy seeing them. Ironically, The Flintstones lived in a 50’s style, above grade, ranch house (I guess they were primitive)… Still, it was made from stone and had cave like interiors, so it sort of counts. Actually, Dick Clark is famous for living in a Flintstones style home, but I guess it would be a stretch to call it an earth sheltered home… Of course, Batman and Bond villains always lived in underground homes. I think it was in one of the “Agent Cody Banks” movies (I have young children) that I saw an underground “lair” that had a central column and concrete ribs similar to the structure planned for my own home…
Here in North America, it was common to find earth sheltered homes in the 19th century and even with the natives before that. I am convinced that if not for our easy access to cheap energy, more of us would still be living that way today. However, even thought their neighbors think they are a bit strange, there are many of these earth sheltered homes around the country. Most are successful, others were spectacular failures. I plan to add sub pages about some of those efforts also. You can also find some interesting examples on the “Links” page.
Very old stone and earth bermed buildings with sod over the roofs are not uncommon in northern Europe.
Very old stone and earth bermed buildings with sod over the roofs are not uncommon in northern Europe.
Bugs was always safest in his underground home
The quaint earth sheltered home of Alfred the Hedgehog
The Little Einstiens had an underground hide out that they accessed thru the tree above…
Teletubbies… Oh well.
MI6 Underground
Bears should live more underground than in a tree… Just sayin’
Bugs, IRL
Dick Clark’s old place… I would joke about his new underground place, but that wouldn’t help my argument ;^)
I have collected quite a large number of links (found throughout this site) and will eventually add many of them here. Some are links to sites about earth sheltered homes, others are for specific homes or articles about homes…
Schematic from John Hait’s website
This is a classic site. John Hait is famous for this Umbrella idea, which we also plan to incorporate in our home… His site will help you understand a lot of what we plan to do. He also self published a book. His umbrella concept actually made it into Popular Science (Aug 86), which is quite an accomplishment. One of the main differences is that my design calls for “By-passive Solar” to avoid some of the problems associated with direct heat gain into the living space.
Note: I actually got the insulation umbrella idea from an older book published by the University of Minnesota in 1979 (which John Hait may also have seen before building his home)…
Cold Rolled Steel IBeam framework is the key element of a Formworks EarthShelter
Formworks appears to be one of the best companies out there for helping you build your own Earth Sheltered Home… Actually, I find their Facebook page to be even more interesting than their webset and well stocked with pictures. Unfortuneatly, they would not work with me. I can’t blame them, they have a stream lined process and I wanted to deviate from it in several areas. However, my home will use some similar concepts, such as cold rolled steel to support the rebar and shotcrete. Interestingly, apparently there was a split in the company (I don’t know the whole story) and the brother owns Performance Building Systems, which also builds similar earth sheltered homes.
The underside of a Terradome roof form
Terradome is another way to go… They use standard forms to create monolithic concrete units up to 28ft x 28ft. They actually have a trailer that lifts the ceiling form into place with a hydrolic ram. They pour the units one at a time, then move the form over and pour it again. The company has been around a while and built many earth shelters very affordably. I also like that you can get a good idea of the full cost, up front, on their site. However, I didn’t want to live in a box (or series of boxes) and I thought they looked too bunker like. I did imagine that it would be possible to build a nice earth/italiante style home with a nice square tower to access your roof lawn…
Bill Lishman built his house from Rebar sprayed with cement (shotcrete) and covered with earth. The forms are very organic.
The movie “Fly Away Home” was based on Bill Lishman (played by Jeff Daniels). I think the movie left out the part about him living in an undergound house because they didn’t want him to appear too kooky, or maybe because it would have been a tricky set to build… I think this is where I originally got the idea for building with shotcrete. However, it turns out that spraying from underneath results in a lot more mess (rebound) and no one wants to deal with carting out the mess by wheelbarrow. His house is also interesting because instead of using I beams to hold the shape of the rebar and shotcrete, he made custom trusses by welding together bits of rebar. Anyway, our home will not be much like this, but still an interesting site.
The reciprocal roof beams in this small home are stunning
Everyone has to find this hobbit style house charming… Simon Dale built it for less than £3000. I am not sure I would want to live in it, but it sure is gorgeous.
One of many homes designed by Peter Vetsch
Architect Peter Vetsch, is one of the most famous earth shelteted home architects in Europe. His homes are very organic looking. My main concern is that he doesn’t seem too worried about heat loss thru the concrete. Here in Michigan, where the climate is more severe, I need to be very careful about heat loss. When I first started down this path, I found his buildings and plans very inspiring.
Michelle’s own home has a very traditional Mansard style roof (parapet) to help it blend into her more “normal” neighborhood.
Michelle put this website together about her earth sheltered dreams. She ended up just buying one instead, but this site gets an A for enthusiasm, so I thought I would include it on my list. She has a series of links to other earth sheltered projects, and I have gone thru them all.
Messy Nessy Blogs about offbeat and unique things, including Earth Sheltered Homes. Here are two articles that were shared recently on the Malcolm Wells Yahoo group. This first one is about Englands abandoned Rock Houses. And this second one is about a hand-dug underground home and garden (Forestiere Gardens) in California. I think you can find more on the site if you dig around a bit.
Solar Links
Solar 101 Basics looks like a pretty comprehensive look at all things solar.
Passive House
Anyone building this sort of house should understand the Passive House theory even if they are not going for the full blown official Passive House status.
