Nevermind, I remembered over dinner. Ben Folds Five.
Gotcha.
While I can’t immediately support this with cites, I’ve read that the per-square-foot price isn’t that much higher than more conventional housing, and the difference is made up in energy efficiency. South-facing window walls, massive masonry heat sinks and so on. The problem is that most banks won’t loan on something that doesn’t look like most other houses, in order to protect their resale value should the homeowner default. This tends to lead to such homes being built by people who don’t need a bank loan, and therefore being impressively expensive examples of the design. I’ve read quite a bit about these types of homes, and would love to live in one, but my finances say i’m stuck with stick-built.
-mdf
Cazzle beat me to it with the Coober Pedy (cool name for a cool town) info. Drat!
IIRC, there was talk in the 80s of solving the lack of downtown space in the world’s cities by building skyscrapers which go down as far, or nearly as far, as they go up. Proponents of this idea claimed that by clever use of light shafts and mirrors, the underground levels of these buildings would have an acceptable amount of natural sunlight. I’ll post a cite if I can find one.
Ben Folds Five?? I thought this was a reference to Jeff Wayne’s musical version of The War of the Worlds…you know, the artilleryman who thought we could all live in the sewers to escape the Martians? Maybe I dreamed it…
ULLA!!!
I have been mulling this idea over for quite some time along with my plans to build a straw bale home in the future.
I am thinking that combining the two design elements might be practical and complement each other really well.
Like jarbabyj I have issues with sunlight, I need lots or I become downright homicidal.
And after reading this, I have “Some people might say my life is in a rut, But I’m quite happy with a-what I’ve got!” running through my head.
Twenty-three years after it came out and it was never played on U.S. radio. I really need to get up to date…
Most codes require two means of escape from bedrooms for fire safety, so an underground house will still need windows. According to my copy of Underground Housing by Malcolm Wells (more of a wish book than anything), this is typically taken care of by building into a slope, putting a main hallway at the back of the house and putting most of the rooms on the side that faces downhill.
Undergound homes are common around here. I can think of around 30 in the county right off the top of my head.
Check out my friend Mole Man Mike Oehlers’ book The 50 dollar and up Underground House book. If you are interested, e-mail me and I’ll get you an autographed copy.
I’ve been in 10 or 12 over the years and helped build one years ago. All are different, depending on how much work and money individuals put into them. All were comfortable, folks had few complaints, although they all knew what they would do different if they ever built another one.
Every one I’ve been in has been light and airy.