Underground House

Here’s an interesting house inspired by a book at DVD set, The $50 and up Underground House, by Mike Oehler. It’s a cob, log, and mostly natural material house being built by Glenn and Kathy Kangiser in central California. You can follow the construction process on this online forum.

The most interesting part of the project to me is the unusual building technique. Unlike a portable tiny house this is a very permanent green building, built right into the land. Underground houses have a lot of advantages, thermal mass being the most obvious, but they also raise a lot of questions and issues, like water infiltration, insect infestations, and code compliance. Using cob and timber below grade seem to invite more trouble which makes this project even more interesting. How in the world are they going to account for all these issues? Anyway I thought I’d share this recent finding in case anyone thought it was worth investigation as I did. Photo credit Glenn and Kathy Kangiser.

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