Underground living

For figurative senses of living underground, seeUnderground.

Underground livingrefers to living below the ground's surface, whether in natural or manmadecavesor structures (earth shelters). Underground dwellings are an alternative to above-ground dwellings for some home seekers, including those who are looking to minimizeimpact on the environment.Factories and office buildings can benefit from underground facilities for many of the same reasons as underground dwellings such as noise abatement, energy use, and security.

An underground house in theSassi di Matera,Italy

An underground jewellery shop inCoober Pedy

An example of an excavated house inBrhlovce,Slovakia

Some advantages of underground houses include resistance to severe weather, quiet living space, an unobtrusive presence in the surrounding landscape, and a nearly constant interior temperature due to the natural insulating properties of the surrounding earth. One appeal is theenergy efficiencyandenvironmental friendlinessof underground dwellings. However, underground living does have certain disadvantages, such as the potential for flooding, which in some cases may require special pumping systems to be installed.

It is the preferred mode of housing to communities in such extreme environments asItaly'sSassi di Matera,Australia'sCoober Pedy,Berbercaves as those inMatmâta, Tunisia,and evenAmundsen–Scott South Pole Station.

Often, underground living structures are not entirely underground; typically, they can be 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.

History

There is only written documentation of Scythian and German subterranean dwellings. Remnants have been found in Switzerland,Mecklenburgand southern Bavaria, "They had a round shape with a kettle-like widening at the bottom, from eleven to fifteen metres in diameter, and from two to four metres in depth".

In the final stage ofWorld War II,the Nazis relocated entire armaments factories underground, as the Allies'air supremacymade surface structures vulnerable to daylightstrategic bombing raids.

Construction methods

In parts of rural Australia, subterranean houses are built in a manner similar toprairie dogholes. There is a "chimney" placed higher than ground-level and a lower, ground-level, entrance. This orientation causes a continuous breeze throughout the house, reducing or eliminating the need for air conditioning.

Sustainable Development of Urban Underground Space (UUS)

As a step towards achieving the United Nations'SDGs(in particular Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable), urban cities in developed economies of the world are increasingly looking "downwards" rather than expanding limited land resources at the surface.Helsinki,Singapore,Hong Kong,Minneapolis,Tokyo,Shanghai,Montrealetc. are some of the benchmark cities in this regard.Underground space as a valuable land resource can be integrated into a general urban resources management scheme and development policy, by rationalizing resource supply according to economic demand, and by coordinating stakeholders from the public administration, private administration, private developers and users.The consideration of the other dimension (underground) in city planning holds a promising future for sustainable underground living, where it can contribute to making cities more liveable, resilient and inclusive.Historically planning of subsurface facilities has been subject to an ad-hoc development approach by separate sectors and disciplines.Successful integration of Urban Underground Space into city planning however requires a synergy of several disciplines and stakeholders to achieve rational use of space resources.

Structures

There are various ways to develop structures for underground living.

• Caves(Natural) have been used for millennia as shelter.
• Caves(Constructed)/Dugoutsare a common structure for underground living. Although the tunnelling techniques required to make them have been well developed by theminingindustry, they can be considerably more costly and dangerous to make than some of the alternatives. On the plus side, they can be quite deep. Some examples would be theSassi di Materain Italy, declared byUNESCOaWorld Heritage Site,and the town ofCoober PedyinAustralia,built underground to avoid the blistering heat of theOutback.One of the traditional house types in China is theYaodong,a cave house. Also, see theNok and Mamproug Cave Dwellingsin Togo, Africa.
• Earth bermstructures are essentially traditional homes that have then been buried,typically leaving at least one wall exposed for lighting and ventilation. However, because they are to be buried, the structures must be made of materials capable of surviving the increased weight and moisture of being underground.
• Rammed earthstructures are not truly underground, in the sense of being below grade or buried beneath a berm. Instead, they are structures made of tightly packed earth, similar toconcretebut without the binding properties ofcement.These structures share many properties with traditional adobe construction.
• Culvertstructures are a very simple approach. Largeprecast concretepipes and boxes a few metres across are assembled into the desired arrangement of rooms and hallways onsite, either atop the existing ground or below grade in excavated trenches, then buried. This approach can also be referred to asCut and Cover.
• Urbanunderground living is so common that few even think of it as underground. Manyshopping mallsare partially or totally underground, in the sense that they are below grade. Though not as exotic as the other underground structures, those working in such urban underground structures are in fact living underground.
• Shaftstructures. For example,Taisei Corporationproposed to buildAlice CityinTokyoJapan.The project would incorporate a very wide and deep shaft, within which would be built levels for habitation, all looking in toward a hollow core topped with a huge skylight.
• Tunnels,includingstorm drains,are used by homeless people as shelter in large cities.

In fiction

Underground living has been a feature of fiction, such as thehobbit holesof the Shire as described in the stories ofJ. R. R. TolkienandThe Underground CitybyJules Verne.Some films are almost entirely set underground, such asTHX 1138.TheFallout seriesalso has underground shelters called Vaults.

The majority of the early shortscience-fictionstory "The Machine Stops"byBritishauthorE.M. Forsteris set in an imagined underground city.

See also

Parent categories:

• Rock-cut architecture– Structures and sculptures cut into solid rock
• Subterranea (geography)– underground space, natural and man-made underground structuresPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback:underground structures
• Underground city– Series of linked subterranean spaces, umbrella article for underground dwellings and facilities
• Underground construction– Field of engineering for the design and construction of structures below the ground

Types of underground living spaces and people, and related topics:

• Basement– Below-ground floor of a building
• Bunker– Defensive military storage fortification
• Dugout (shelter)– Hole or depression used as shelter
• Earth house– House partially or entirely surrounded by earthPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Earth sheltering– House partially or entirely surrounded by earthPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Fallout shelter– Enclosed space designated to protect occupants from radioactive debris from a nuclear explosion
• Green building– Structures and processes of building structures that are more environmentally responsible
• Icelandic turf house– House type
• Kiva– Room used by Puebloans for religious rituals and political meetings
• Mole people– People who live in tunnels underground
• Pit-house– Type of earth shelter with ancient origins
• Souterrain– Underground structure associated mainly with the Atlantic Iron Age
• Underground base– base located undergroundPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
• Underwater habitat– Human habitable underwater enclosure filled with breathable gas
• Walipini– Earth-sheltered structure for growing plants
• Trench– Excavated channel in ground
• Quiggly hole– Remains of an earth lodge built by First Nations people
• Zemlyanka– Type of earth shelter with ancient origins

References

• Roy, Rob (2006).Earth-Sheltered Houses: How to Build an Affordable Underground Home.New Society Publishers.ISBN978-0-86571-521-9.
• Jochelson, Waldemar. (1906)."Past and Present Subterranean Dwellings of the Tribes of North Eastern Asia and North Western America."InCongrès International des Américanistes, XVe session tenue à Québec en 1906,Vol. 2. Quebec: International Congress of Americanists, 1906, pp. 115–128. Reprinted Nendeln, Liechtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1968.