Underground buildings

Source:Swiss Mountain House Trendir - Modern House Designs

Mankind has always built houses under ground for many reasons. Examples can be found in China, Spain, France and so many other countries. But also today architects experiment with underground houses, earth-sheltered houses or houses in caves, often for environmental reasons.

The building physics of underground spaces are not that simple, especially the ventilation of the spaces and the hygric behaviour of the underground wall, but it might be an interesting way of land use.

Some nice examples can be found on the blog Webecoist where they are called Hobbit houses.
An extensive photo report of the Swiss Mountain House by the Dutch SeARCH architects and Christian Muller architects can be found here.
Also Home Quotient shows 12 examples of modern and less modern underground or earth-sheltered houses.
A concept that is presented as a concept for sustainable green buildings is the Earthship. All information and links on this can be found on Earthship Biotecture.
More information and extra links for underground houses can be found on the website of Underground Buildings: Architecture and Environment.

Several videos with examples of underground houses can be found on Youtube, such as houses in the outback of Australia to escape from the heat, the Swiss Mountain House, examples of Earthships and so many others.