With Climate Volatility/Tornados- We Should Begin Building Underground Houses. It Saves Energy

[KittyWampus]

and saves lives. Besides Underground Housing, there is also the concept of Earth Sheltering. If local geography precludes digging down, you can build ground up. BTW, this is a repost from several years ago. Maybe we will begin to reshape our communities so they work with Nature rather than against it.

From Wiki:

Underground Living-

Besides 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.<1> 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 living can be easily affected by flooding and sometimes special pumping equipment is necessary



Earth Sheltering-

Earth sheltering is the architectural practice of using earth against building walls for external thermal mass, to reduce heat loss, and to easily maintain a steady indoor air temperature. Earth sheltering is popular in modern times among advocates of passive solar and sustainable architecture, but has been around for nearly as long as humans have been constructing their own shelter

[fizzgig]

1. i would love to live in a hobbit hole

it's one of my 'if money were no object' dreams

[RobertEarl]

2. Cave dwellings!

Seriously, earth shelters are the way to go. With the waterproofing technology we have, buildings can easily be kept dry, which is the problem with basements, which are basically earth sheltered constructions.

And if you go whole-hog and pile dirt on top, you can grow weeds over your head!

My next house, I hope, will be a weed headed house.

[Warpy]

3. Pioneers often did that

digging a pit and putting the roof over it with just a short wall above ground. I imagine they found it damp and buggy but it saved on lumber costs to build and heating costs in winter.

I would love to have a home dug into a hillside, large windows facing south, roll down metal shutters offering protection from heavy weather and wildfire. Spray on concrete would seal it and make it considerably less damp and buggy than what the pioneers and homesteaders had to cope with.

[KittyWampus]

7. I believe reading somewhere that sod houses were somewhat resistant to wildfires.

[olddots]

4. I don't want to live in THX 1138

the places in these pictures would be nice though .

[AverageJoe90]

5. Certainly an interesting idea.....would probably be hella expensive, though.

Still, if you've got enough money, a good spot to build it in, and you're sure you'll love your new space.....go for it!

[graham4anything]

6. However, in flood areas, in hurricanes like Sandy, people underground would drown or buried alive.

The NYC tunnel from Brooklyn to Manhattan, and the Holland Tunnel from NJ to NY both flooded big time.
(and those were built under the water, not in the water, so to say, and were suppose to be unfloodable, yet they flooded.
Imagine if one lived in there).
Being underground does not help the whole country where the terrain is different.
and people need sunshine. Underground would be prison like. Or survivalist like. And would lead to people being scared of going out into their daily lives such as working and shopping for essentials. It would be very isolationist imho.

Personally, I couldn't think of anything worse than not seeing the sun and hiding underground or living in a cave.
Be like being buried alive.
One can't outrun Mother Nature.
And I for one wouldn't want to be here with say 20% of the people, if the other 80% of the people were not.
Humans were not meant to be anti-social. imho

So much of what is wrong these days is people spending too much time holed away without being among random people at all times of the day.

It would also seem like the air would get very stale down there, and would require 24/7/365 filtering of the air and if everyone is down there, who would be up there to power anything?

If nobody is in the sun, would the sun still be there (proverbially speaking?)

Who's minding the store while everyone is hidden? And why shouldn't those people have the benefits of those hidden?

[KittyWampus]

8. If you actually looked at underground houses they do get sun on one side or there are pipes that let

in sunlight in some designs.

[geek tragedy]

9. semi-plausible for the suburbs.

For densely populated areas, notsomuch.

And, no way would I ever live in a hole in the ground. I need my sunshine and air.

[randome]

10. How else do you think we're going to survive climate change?

Go underground and create enclosed communities. Those who survive.

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[hobbit709]

11. Depends on the ground.

My yard has about 6 inches of dirt, then caliche-you don't dig in caliche, you blast.

[snooper2]

12. There is a reason we don't have basements in Texas and Oklahoma

Better idea would be monolithic domes

This is the one you see from 35 going South to Austin