The BIG Desk

In a book I am writing ever so slowly I attempt to create a near perfect township. One of the ideas in respect to domiciles put forth in this grand place is the idea of living underground. Of course some of my quite distant ancestors lived in caves so I can’t claim this is a new idea but as often is the case what’s old is new again. It’s simply a terrific idea. The obvious reasons include a huge energy savings during all seasons, especially northern winters, maintenance savings (no eaves trough cleaning, exterior painting, brickwork, etc.) and overall environmental impact.

Here’s kind of what I’m envisioning for the never to be completed novel, it comes from the Nine Houses, Dietikon courtesy of the Greenroofs.com website.

Our city, like most major metropolis’ suffers from urban sprawl. More and more land gets chewed up and paved over. If we opted to live both in harmony with nature and still be close to the action, the answer lies under your feet. Imagine the block you live on if all the homes were buried. We’d have much more water retention in our neighbourhood via the soil and grass acting as a sponge instead of the concrete and asphalt we have everywhere that sends oil and storm water straight back into our rivers. We’d have moderately cleaner air, substantial energy savings and perhaps a slight shift in our perception of the world around us. Even if we don’t want to be fully underground we can at least consider the idea of a smaller footprint with a little green on top. Take a look at this place in London, courtesy of Inhabitat.com

Here’s a poignant quote from architect Malcolm Wells. His quote comes from Eve Kushner’s terrific website

“Nuclear and chemical wastes continue to pile up out of control,” he wrote. After lambasting pesticides, he mentioned “the crisis right before our eyes—green land destruction,” then assailed architects, engineers, planners and contractors for their complicity in this disaster. Having spent decades advocating underground architecture, Wells subsequently made the case for earth-sheltered buildings: “energy efficiency, silence, fire resistance, permanence, ease of maintenance, bright and dry interiors, and best of all, the ability to heal the wounds of their own construction.”

Here is an art gallery that Malcolm Wells built for he and his wife.

As I mentioned in the intro, one of the topics I hope to cover is living greener in conjunction with aesthetic design. I hope this gets you thinking about some of the things that can be done. Here are a couple other informative links.

• underground assembly hall in Denmark
• Earth Sheltering – Wikipedia
• CNN Article