Underground Houses

Underground houses are not new, in fact they have been present in construction and housing design for many years, but underground housing is having resurgence with the increasing need for eco housing designs.

This recent project with IQ Glass in Barnet introduced an eco, underground home in the rear garden of the existing house. The Eco Home incorporates many aspects of slim framed architectural glass to bring natural light into the space.

By building the home partially underground energy costs can be cut by up to 80% and the temperature of the space can be regulated easily. The earth's below surface temperature is stable, so underground houses benefit from geothermal mass and heat exchange, staying cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

The sliding doors around the two open elevations of the IQ Glass project in Barnet allow large amounts of natural light to enter the space which does not allow much other option for windows further into the space. The elevations of sliding glass can then be used as access out onto the garden courtyard space.

These sliding glass doors incorporate high thermally insulating glass units to create an impressive overall thermal performance. On these types of Eco focused buildings you don’t want to overlook the thermal performance of the glazing elements as heat will escape through the easiest possible route.

The entrance way incorporates frameless glass windows surrounding the entrance door. Separating the entrance hall from the rest of the house is a frameless glass internal screen. In these types of underground houses the use of frameless internal glass screens is important to allow natural light to travel further into the home and further underground.

Obviously the roof can be an understandable entrance for light into any type of underground space. In this particular project IQ Glass created some really interesting structural glass rooflights fitting into the design and shape of the space including an impressive boxed rooflight protruding from the Cotswold stone covering the exposed façade.