Awesome Hidden Lair Tucked Under Mounds of Green Grass

by Yuka Yoneda

We're really into buried homes here at Inhabitat - from this crazy flower-shaped one in Britain to these 700 year old hobbit houses in Iran, we've scoured the globe looking for the coolest ones. So you can imagine how we felt when we stumbled upon this delightful hidden gem by Vetsch Architektur. Made of concrete and earth, the Swiss estate is actually a cluster of grass-blanketed houses encircling a pretty little lake. Aside from using natural and recycled materials and having a green roof, the structure was built using typical earth house construction, resulting in an insulating blanket that protects it from rain, low temperatures, wind and natural abrasion.

 

The estate is actually quite spacious and consists of nine houses – three 3 bedroom, a 4 bedroom, a 5 bedroom, three 6 bedroom and one 7 bedroom – clustered around a lake. In order to maximize daylighting, the areas which would be used most during the day are situated towards the south, and the nighttime areas towards the north. Bathrooms and stairs to the basement sit between the two and all of the bathrooms get natural light via skylights.
While the basement and parking lot (yes there is a subterranean parking lot) were built using conventional methods, the entire ground floor was constructed using the typical earth home sprayed concrete technique. The house also makes use of recycled glass and is topped with a protective green roof which can be used to grow grass or even edible plants.

 

Bercy Chen Buries a High-Tech Update of a Traditional Pit-House

by Lloyd Alter

Bercy-Chen Studio is doing a fascinating 1400 square foot residence in Austin, Texas that hits all the right TreeHugger buttons. It is on a modern version of the pit-house used by ancient Pueblo and Cherokee Indians.
The Red Bluff house is a little more sophisticated; like the pit-house it uses the earth's thermal mass to temper the climate. However it adds a few modern touches like hydronic heating & cooling, geothermal heat exchange, phase-change thermal heat storage, rainwater collection and a green roof.

The architect writes:

The house's relationship to the landscape both in terms of approach as well as building performance references the oldest housing typology in North America; the pit house. Like a pit house, the house will undergo a 7-foot excavation gaining benefits from the earth's mass to maintain thermal comfort throughout the year. Such architectural settings create opportunities for maximum energy efficiency using a proposed Integrated Hydronic HVAC system.

The heating and cooling system is very sophisticated, yet based on simple principles of thermal mass and time-shifting. Heat from the sun is absorbed through the patio floor and circulated into phase change storage, smoothing down the peaks and reducing load on the heat pumps. (See full size drawing on flickr here)

According to Designboom, the site is a brownfield that contained an oil pipeline that will be excavated and removed, and that "central to this retreat for a science fiction writer is the healing of the land, a charges site where the urban/industrial condition once met nature in a brutal and unsympathetic manner."

Stunning Green Roofed Hospital Heals Through Sustainable Design

by Andrew Michler, 06/16/10

The Meyers Pediatric Hospital in Florence, Italy is an exceptional sustainable design that harnesses architecture to help the healing process. The complex is located in a park-like setting and consists of an early 20th century building updated with a new sustainable wing. With an extensive green roof, robust daylighting, and copious art and open space the hospital provides an ideal environment for healing.

  

The Hospital has taken many efforts to provide comfort for its young patients. They first enter the original restored complex — Romano Del Nord of architecture firm CSPE explains: “we wanted to create a memory of the past while reducing the stressful impact of a typical hospital structure.” Patients then take a covered path through a central garden that leads to the new building’s extensive atrium. Filled with light and art, the atrium’s supporting columns spread out like trees. The upper glass has embedded solar electric panels to provide energy and reduce glare.

The new building is set into the hillside and tiered to mix with the landscape. The effect is further enhanced by the green roof, which covers most of the building. The upper atrium features a play area that opens to the green roof to allow the children to remain connected to the outdoors. 47 “Pinocchio Hats” dot the roof — these are actually solar tubes that feed natural light into the building. The complex was developed under the European Union’s Energie Program and has successfully reduced its energy consumption by a whopping 62% for HVAC and 80% for electrical compared to a typical hospital. We couldn’t be more impressed by this beautiful hospital that also helps heal the planet.

Minimalist Adobe House

What about containers clad in adobe or papercrete as far as additional insulation and aesthetics?

I like the courtyard idea as well. With a good membrane  ... the roof could be a planted green roof.

Minimalist Adobe Brick Home is a Box Within a Box

by Andrew Michler

A box within a box, this simple house composed of mud bricks formed into a contemporary structure is an elegant synthesis of old and new. Built in Marfa, Texas, a town better known for the artist Donald Judd’s boxes than its dwellings, the Mud House stands out as a Zen-like oasis. Oakland-based Rael San Fratello Architecture designed the home with simplicity in mind to keep costs low while maintaining a high level of energy efficiency. Read on to learn how they did it.

 

Rael San Fratello Architecture’s concept was to build this one bedroom house using traditional adobe mud bricks. Adobe bricks are an ideal sustainable building material for regions that are hot and not prone to earthquakes. They also offer excellent insulation — as it gets pretty hot in southern Texas, not having to install AC is a great financial benefit.
For the lower portion, dense bricks that can withstand water and weight were brought in from New Mexico. The lighter colored bricks set above the concrete lintels weigh less and were sourced just across the border in Mexico. The lintels subtly break the monolithic, locally-sourced, mud plastered walls.

Read more: Minimalist Adobe Home is a Box Within a Box | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World 

The style is also minimalist on the inside. The kitchen and bathroom extend from an interior box that houses the plumbing, boiler and storage, so as not to complicate the adobe wall construction. A radiant heating concrete floor and fireplace keeps the home cozy in the winter, and a walled-in courtyard provides complete serenity.