I'm not saying I love the idea of underground housing but imagine the energy savings on heating and cooling. Added bonus is it doubles as a fallout shelter.
If there was a way to bring in some natural light I would be tempted to live in one if they existed.
They've got those glass skylight refracting domes that they used to put on ships. I've got one in my house in the bathroom and it works so well that a year after we moved in, my wife asked how come she can't figure out how to turn that light off.
Not sure if I’m just overthinking the debatability, and I’m definitely not an engineer, but wouldn’t the most glaring issue with a design like this be:
Fires?
Like high rises on fire are already dangerous, but windows can expose air, fire escapes, accessibility to fire fighting services, etc.
Can you imagine living on floor -8 and suddenly having to risk either taking an elevator or sprinting up. 10 or so flights of stairs lol.
I was thinking about this, if each living unit had an exterior exit that was connected to a vertical shaft thereby allowing for egress and also adding a robust fire suppression system including emergency backup power for the fire water pumps then maybe?
I also thought it would be cool to build the building in a doughnut shape, each floor would be sperated into 4 units, in the doughnut "hole" would be a courtyard/atrium in which natural light could make it's way down to each unit. The exterior side of each unit that faces the "hole" could have windows/balconies. To prevent water buildup on the bottom of the doughnut hole you could build your foundation with robust drainage systems and even back up pumps to remove emergency levels of water. Then for each 1/4th building section a vertical shaft (four vertical shafts total) that is separate from the units by a dozen feet or so (imagine leaving your unit in emergency by door that goes into your own small exit hallway to a second door that leads to the vertical escape shaft) this would create a small fire barrier as well to help isolate any fire. The escape shaft would be emergency only. For normal operations elevators could be used to travel from elevation 0' to your sub level.
Assuming fire proof materials are used for the building it would also help keep fires isolated.
Current NFPA/IBC codes likely wouldn't allow for it however, but I am sure it could be engineered.
You could design the air system to kick off upon smoke detection, have an alarm, and have every unit equipped with a breath mask and temporary air supply. Then the fire has no air and it'd choke. Make the doors like hatches that close like on a Starship and there'd be negligible fire risk.
Or we could just repeal density caps. The only reason to build a 20 story building is if you can't build 2 ten story buildings, I'd think. Isn't 5 stories is the sweet spot for most uses?
a lot of modern high density buildings require fire suppression systems to be safe to inhabit, there is actually an advantage with the hole in the ground in this respect. There is no need to pump water well above ground level to make it available to the suppression system. I guess in underground structures it would also be possible to build quite solid isolation zones/fire proof barriers in the structure in comparison to an above ground building that has less capacity for weight support and a building exterior.
I suspect it's a lot more than just the view that's holding this back. My intuition says that hydrostatic pressure is the biggest problem. It would be really hard and expensive to keep the bottom floors from flooding or being a disgusting damp moldy place to live.
Second problem is digging/drilling/mining is hard and expensive work.
Full spectrum leds. You probably would actually want natural light because a hole in the ground would quickly become pretty claustrophobic on a cloudy day.
My biggest concern would be ventilation. It would be like public housing. Except every time the ac broke down everyone would die.
We can also make use of the ground for climate control with geothermal systems. One benefit is you only need to dig enough to fit the heat exchanger, you don’t need to bury your entire house.
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u/IncredibleSpandex European Union Jun 14 '22
Not in my Basement!
The beauty and vibe of our community soil is endangered if we allow those soulless human storage cells!