Down to Earth Homes
(Page 3 of 6)
February/March 2003
By Dan Chiras
You may be able to locate a building professional in your area through the American Underground Construction Association (see " Resources ," Page 100). If you are planning to build the house yourself, consult with qualified professionals. An experienced earth-sheltered-home architect or builder in your area can help you comply with building codes, meet fire safety requirements, and meet roof and insulation specifications. He or she may also help you secure financing.
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Earth-sheltered homes come in many shapes and sizes; choosing the right design depends on many factors, among them, personal taste, aesthetics, soil type, topography and proximity to groundwater (see " Comparing Earth-Sheltered Options " on Page 97).
Typically nestled into a hillside, partially underground homes are ideal for hilly or mountainous terrain. All but the southfacing walls are bermed, or banked, with earth, and dirt is placed onto the specially reinforced and carefully waterproofed roof and seeded with grasses, wildflowers or other native plants. Some folks even grow gardens on their living roofs. The partially buried earth-sheltered home is suitable for those who want to integrate their homes into the site and take advantage of passive-solar heating. Because water tends to drain down the hill toward the building and off the roof toward the back of the home, it is advisable to build in highly water-permeable soils and to install a water drainage system around the perimeter of the buried walls.
Berthed homes are built largely aboveground, and are suited to flat or very slightly sloped terrain. To earth-shelter a bermed home, dirt is pushed up against the waterproofed walls, usually to just below the windows, with doorways left unbermed. To provide additional earth-sheltering, some builders add a living roof (see " Living Roofs ," Page 98). For those who are less concerned about merging their home with the site or for whom high water tables or water-impermeable soils pose a problem, the bermed structure may fit the bill.
Bermed and partially underground homes can take advantage of clerestory windows, a bank of vertical windows that runs along the uppermost portion of a wall, which helps bring additional natural light into the structure. Even though there are no windows on the north side of my house, you wouldn't have the slightest idea that you were nearly underground. The combination of the clerestory windows and south-facing glazing bring in so much sunlight that I rarely need to turn lights on during the day. When the sun shines, my house comes alive with light.
The completely underground home — built around an atrium or courtyard — is perfect for those who want to blend unobtrusively with the landscape, and is well-matched for flatter sites that have permeable, well-drained soils and no threat of groundwater intrusion caused by a high water table. To ensure adequate lighting, rooms are built around a sunken courtyard. For more uniform lighting, special skylights, called lightwells, may be installed to deliver light to the backs of rooms. Visitors and occupants enter via a stairway that descends into the atrium. Most atria are paved or filled with decorative rock. Plants may be grown in the atrium, but because this space receives very' little direct sunlight, they tend to fare poorly.
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