Building is an art form, with many styles borrowing ideas and concepts from across human cultures and history. From hulking brutalist megastructures to humble teahouses, each building gives us a way to explore our culture and express what we find the most important. Yet, despite the sheer variety on offer, we do tend to stick to one connecting truth: if we live in it, it goes above ground.
This makes sense, since building above ground is easier and it lets people see what they’ve invested in. It’s not the only option, however, with newer approaches taking a different direction, down. Building a home into the ground might bring to mind the Hobbit homes of Middle Earth, but the reality can be seriously worth considering, with more forward-thinking advantages than you might think.
Underground Doesn’t Mean Darkness
When we think of underground, we tend to imagine digging a hole, building something, and then covering it up. We see a bunker, hidden away from the world and invisible at a glance. This is one way of interpreting the idea, but more recent adaptions of this type of home see the home as more of a kind of artificial hill. An existing hilltop can be dug out, a home can be built on top, and the soil can then be placed overtop, recreating much of the hill’s original appearance.
Taking this route means you can still include many of the traditional features that make a regular great. You can still include windows towards the sides for natural light, you can still add skylights, and you can still feature large doors for a better flow. In this way, we could see the soil and grass more as natural cladding, while the bones of the building are still traditional.
Underground Can Offer Serious Advantages
Working with and around nature plays an important part in modern living and home building. Both in creating a greener living space and protecting ourselves against more extreme weather patterns, underground homes can offer features that traditional homes cannot.
Soil is a natural insulator, which can help keep homes cool during the summer, while keeping heat in during the winter. Being underground (at least if you’re up on a hill) will also protect from extreme weather events.
Underground can be a perfect extension of green philosophies and technology, where solar power and natural wells can support low-impact living better than older techniques. People taking this approach might even use their yards or rooftops to grow vegetables, further supporting themselves into a more self-sufficient future.
Costs Can Be Unpredictable
No house build is ever cheap, but at least most builders and developers come with the backing of decades of experience. While many of the basics of underground homes are transferable from traditional setups, there are major disconnects here. Very few builders will know how to anticipate every challenge that building underground will represent, and this means you’ll have to overestimate your costs. Generally, we’d suggest at least 15% over your budget in reserve, as a start.
Savings can then be aided by locking down sales of existing properties before your underground build starts. There are many traditional options here, but more modern digital approaches can also help secure your bankroll more easily and effectively. For example, if you’re thinking that I would like to sell my house for cash, these online systems offer serious advantages. Backed by the ability to sell in your own timeframe with no hidden fees, these systems can help secure everything you need before the hard digging and building work begins. With free cash offers covering properties across the UK, taking an approach like this is key to building confidence before you begin building houses.
Underground homes aren’t yet on the radar for many people, but the ongoing advantages might become too much to ignore for anyone considering countryside living. For living a greener future while protecting yourself against what Mother Nature might throw out next, a comfy home like this could be the perfect fit. Plus, you’d get to use the excuse you’re too busy mowing your roof when you want to get out of something, which is almost worth the effort for the bizarre sentence alone.
