A Down-To-Earth Architect

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THE BRESEE HOUSE

The first of the Macdonald earth shelters to be completed was a surprisingly spacious, 820-square-foot, two-bedroom home with a sodded roof. Suzanne and H. Pendleton Bresee are the owners of the structure, and did the contracting themselves . . . hoping to become educated in the ways of construction.

Each of the house's three main rooms receives direct sunlight through at least one south-facing double-paned window, and the roof overhangs the openings far enough to block direct sunlight in the summer. In addition, provision has been made for adding a layer of fiberglass glazing against the fins that extend at the end of each window. During the winter, the area between the double glass and the fiberglass panels acts as both a solar collector during the day and an insulative air gap at night.

The walls themselves are made of 8" concrete block, reinforced with 1/2" rebar and concrete fill in alternate cavities. The exterior of the earth-bermed masonry is protected with a heavy coating of Thoroseal brand waterproofing, and appropriate gravel-and-pipe drainage paths are set against the base of all the walls.

The Bresees did go slightly over the $21,000 budget that Mr. Macdonald had allowed for the construction . . . partly because an underground stream was unearthed during the excavation. (While the well on the property had to be sunk 300 feet, a Caterpillar operator ran into plenty of running water, at a depth of seven feet, on the construction site . . . and extensive grade work was required to reroute the flow.) Still, the Bresees managed to complete the building for about $25,000.

THE MCLAIN HOUSE

While the Bresee house was of a standard design, Ferrel McLain's home reflects an interesting one-of-a-kind approach. The building is sited at the very peak of a hill, and is dug into the earth to the depth of the roof on the east and west sides.

The south end of the structure is a production greenhouse (Ferrel is in the nur sery business), and it is equipped with a plenum system to move solar-heated air around the home's interior. The view to the south is of wooded hillsides and pastures, and directly to the north are the Blue Ridge Mountains.

One of the most interesting structural aspects of the building is that the stresses imposed by the earth fill are directly opposed to each other. So the architect and Mr. McLain decided to use reinforced concrete block walls, and to brace them by positioning prefab steel joists in between. With the 2-1/2" slab roof formed on corrugated steel above the beams, this earth shelter's "top" is far stronger than the 8" of earth fill demands.

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