Underground Home Plans

Underground homes are structures and living spaces below the ground's surface. Underground homes are a part of the general underground living movement.

Besides its obvious novelty, underground living offers additional benefits when compared to living in traditional buildings, such as a nearly constant comfortable temperature without the need for additional insulation, quiet, resistance to hurricanes, tornadoes and most weapon systems and the unobtrusiveness of such buildings on the landscape. One of the greatest advantages is energy efficiency. The stable subsurface temperature of the earth saves around 80% in energy costs. If married to solar design, the energy bill can be completely eliminated. Additionally, the noise insulation of the surrounding earth makes underground homes exceptionally quiet, and with a smaller surface area, fewer building materials are used.

However underground homes can be easily affected by flooding and sometimes special pumping equipment is necessary. Underground living has been both a feature of fiction, such as Hobbiton as described in the stories of J. R. R. Tolkien and The Underground City by Jules Verne. It is also the preferred mode of housing to communities in such extreme environments as Australia's Coober Pedy, Berber caves as those in Matmâta, Tunisia, and even Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. Underground living is even being considered for the design of a future base on Mars.

Often, underground living structures are not entirely underground, typically if they are exposed on one side when built into a hill. This exposure can significantly improve interior lighting, although at the expense of greater exposure to the elements.

Source: Wikipedia.org