zeroHouse - eco living

[Dr Mordrid]

Architects home page....

Specht Harpman zeroHouse page....

Popular Science Blog entry....

Off the Grid, But Living in Style

The zeroHouse, a concept home designed by the New York architecture firm Specht Harpman, would run on solar power and rain water, use gravity-fed plumbing instead of traditional energy-demanding pumps, and recycle its waste.

SF site Technovelgy.com likens it to the advanced abodes described in the Arthur C. Clarke novel Childhood's End, which could be anywhere on land, or even in the sea. The zeroHouse isn't quite there yet, but it certainly would make its occupants feel like the characters in an SF novel. Even the winged solar panel design is reminiscient of the International Space Station. Unfortunately, though, the couches don't look very comfortable.

[KRSESQ]

I love the comment on the PopSci page. Nothing to do with the house at all.

I wonder how this dwelling would hold up in a good windstorm?

Remember in the '70's, when everyone was all about underground dwellings? Supposedly more energy-efficient. I wonder how many of those are still being lived in?

Kevin

[Brian Ellis]

Pretty hideous. I've seen some more attractive concepts. I'd like to know how they recycle the water without energy-demanding pumps, though.

[Gurm]

I love the comment on the PopSci page. Nothing to do with the house at all.

I wonder how this dwelling would hold up in a good windstorm?

Remember in the '70's, when everyone was all about underground dwellings? Supposedly more energy-efficient. I wonder how many of those are still being lived in?

Kevin

Hobbit-holes?

[KRSESQ]

Exactly.

Earth Sheltered Technology, Inc.

25 Reasons Hobbit-holes are superior.

Always thought it could be kind of fun, IF you can keep it dry!

Kevin

[Nowhere]

Uhmm...OK, they are pretty much normal houses covered with a bit of soil?...
Is the novelty the thing that they're not built out of wood, but use concreet instead? (like...pretty much everything here)

Not really underground... (give me at least something in a hill )

[cjolley]

When I was a concrete pump operator in the late 70's to early 80's I worked on a LOT of those here in central Oklahoma where the clay soil is very hard on basements. It expands and contracts a lot with changes in moisture content.

Generally they were built on hills with one side exposed and a French drain around the buried sides.

It would be interesting to see how some of them are doing now.

[Dr Mordrid]

Here they have to build 16' berms and install waterproof-membrane encased concrete shells for the underground portion of the structure. This because of water tables being so high in some places you could dig down to them with a garden spade

[Marshmallowman]

you want undergound houses , go to Cooper Pedy.

Its pretty much the opal capital of the world and a lot of the "houses" are old opal mines. The place is near on a desert so water is not a problem, but being underground certainly saves them from heat.

http://www.gluckman.com/CooberPedy.Australia.html

[Brian Ellis]

There were underground houses 50,000 years ago. They were called caves. Some of them, a few millennia later, were beautifully artistically decorated, too.