Living in a hole in the ground is not just the plot of the movie Hobbit, it’s becoming a thing of reality. There are certainly interesting advantages to this way of life (besides being cool, of course). Underground homes might be the way of the future, an eco-friendly way of settling down, which also opens up some new architectural patterns. Speaking of which, take a look at some awesome designs of most amazing cave houses.
1. Festus, Missouri
Located inside a sandstone cave in Festus, there’s a house occupying about 15,000 square feet and focusing on energy efficiency. Created by Curt and Deborah Sleeper, this home features modern interiors that blend with the natural unfinished sandstone walls. Thanks to geothermal heating and clever design, there is no need for air conditioning or a furnace to cool or heat the home.
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2. Malator in Druidstone, Wales
This underground shelter-like home in Druidstone, Wales is an architectural wonder. The turf roof, steel chimney, and peephole doorway inevitably earned this house its local nickname as “the Teletubby house”. Inside, there’s basically just one room divided into several sections by colored pods. If there’s one place that fully qualifies as an underground home, it would be Malator, and it’s become an interesting model for future designs.
3. Hidden House in Lower Silesia, Poland
This underground house from KWK Promes was designed so that the grassy roof of the home is accessible only to the residents, via a set of stairs inside the house. The home itself is quite spacious, with plenty of light coming in from the many windows where the walls would have been.
4. Cumbria, England
Built into the mountain itself, this home is an energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. Much like with the previous entry, there’s plenty of light hitting the ceiling windows of this home, surrounded by nature and looking exceedingly picturesque. It’s one of the ‘cave homes’ that really makes us feel hopeful about this prospect and its impact on the future.
5. Limehurst, Britain – A Luxurious Underground Mansion
The plans revolving this old Victorian building are quite ambitious. Supposedly, you’ll be able to descend about 50 feet (about 15 meters) below the ground level and appraise the luxurious apartments beneath Limehurst. The expected value of the property is going to reach £2 million by the time it’s finished. We are certain that these flats will be sold as soon as they hit the market.
6. Estate Lättenstrasse, Dietikon, Switzerland
The company behind the design of Estate Lättenstrasse is Vetsch Architektur. The ‘complex’ so to speak, consists of 9 homes with an underground parking lot and an artificial lake right in the middle of the complex. Houses themselves are dug into the hill and are shaped quite uniquely as if they were made out of clay. These houses are protected against the elements, making them highly resilient and eco-friendly at the same time.
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7. Swedish Mountain Underground House
You can find the mountain underground house in Vals, Sweden. The design is simply stunning, with its elliptic shape that resembles an egg (or an asteroid impact site). The home was designed by Dutch architects in collaboration with Christian Muller.
8. A Low Impact Woodland Home
A lovely home, and the one I like most, is this hobbit-like house belonging to Simon Dale from Wales. Built with a lot of care for the environment, this is one of the wonderful and unique places in the world where people would like to live. In fact, there has been so much thought put into keeping this place as environmentally-friendly as possible, going as far as using wooden burners for heating and a water delivery system that relies on the sheer force of gravity (and the nearby spring). Energy is collected by solar panels and it powers the more contemporary items around the house such as computers.
9. Underground house in Greece
This is another carved house with just the second story visible above ground. Designed by Deca Architecture, the eco-friendly home stands proud on the beautiful landscape of the Greek Cycladic Islands and in the windy climate of the Aegean Sea.
10. Cave Dwellings For Rent, Kandovan, Iran
Underneath the Mt. Sahand in Iran, there are a series of dwellings dug into the face of the mountain. They are estimated to be around 700 years old in what is basically a volcanic rock. Despite efforts to modernize these homes and enrich the quality of life of its denizens with contemporary gadgets and services, they’re still fairly modest.
