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Bill Lishman's unique underground house was the culmination of years of research
and countless hours of design. Why build underground? There are many advantages
to earth integrated architecture. With the earth as insulation, heating and cooling
energy requirements are significantly reduced, especially in windy areas.
Underground homes offer protection from storms, never have to painted, shingled
or have the eaves troughs cleaned out! Underground architecture is unobtrusive,
leaving clear views, and can be covered with gardens and lawns.
Without the money to begin construction the idea sat on the back
burner for fifteen year, until the summer of 1988 when things began to take
shape. Bill hired family members to begin constructing the steel domes, and
hired earth moving equipment to remove the top of the hill. The
domes were created by erecting a number of vertical steel trusses in a circle and
connecting them with 3/8 steel rod spaced at 8 inch
Building an underground dwelling of this type poses a
whole new set of challenges. The design must be well thought out in advance
because any changes would be difficult or impossible once the earth was
replaced. Upgrades for things like phone, cable and power must be in place at
the time of building. Square furniture and appliances do not fit in a round
room, there are no corners to stick lamps, and hanging pictures is tricky. All
of these obstacles were overcome with ingenuity and creativity.
At the time of writing the house has been
in use for close to twelve years. There have been surprisingly few problems for
a design so radical, and the next ones will be even better. People are always
amazed when they come in for the first time at the sense of space and amount of
light created by the overhead skylights, some people have to be taken up on the
roof (hill?) to see that the house is actually underground Because the house is
on top of a hill, the North solarium affords an excellent view of the valley and
Lake Scugog in the distance. This unique home has been featured in several
magazines including the first issue of Ikea's Space as well as Harrowsmith,
and Canadian Architect. The home also has it's share
of televised media from around the world and featured in the CBC's Life
and Times special on Bill and the cable show Weird Homes. RealVideo streaming walkthrough of the
house and pop-up fridge: Click on the thumbnails below for bigger photos
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Bill's ideas for underground building emerged in the 70's. The house on
Purple Hill was a prefab wooden viceroy cottage. Perched on top of Purple Hill
the house was very
difficult to keep warm in the winter - even after insulating and recovering the
house in barn board, wind seemed to pass right through. After building an igloo one
winter in the early 1970's, Bill was amazed at how warm it would become just from body
heat, and how the
flame from a lighter or match was all that was needed to illuminate the
whole room. He read many books on underground building and energy
efficient homes. The idea of putting a square home under the earth made no
sense - caves are not boxes, and the box is not a shape that lends itself to the
immense load of earth above. Inspired by British artist and designer Roger Dean he came up
with the idea to build an underground home consisting of interconnected igloo
like domes.
intervals. Vertical rods
were then welded between the trusses to form a grid of 8 inch squares. The
next summer a concrete pad was poured with rubber tubing laid throughout for
in-floor heating. The steel frames were moved into position, connected together
and covered in expanded metal lath.
Once the metal frame was completely covered, Gunnite
concrete was sprayed over the entire interior surface, and trawled smooth. The
inside layer was concrete mixed with marble powder to form a smooth white
surface . The exterior of the house was covered in a waterproof tar, buried in
dry sand and a membrane layer of rubber sheeting was placed over the entire area
to act as an umbrella to keep the sand mass dry. The sand mass is crisscrossed
with air ducts that circulate warm air from the solariums located at either end
of the house. Topsoil was then replaced over top of the membrane, covered
with grass seed and gardens and now must be mowed on a regular
basis. 
Each
room has buried conduit, through which which wires can be passed, connecting it
to the other rooms and the utility room. The arched doors were all hand made by
Richard VanHeuvelan, as well as the cupboards, desks and countertops to fit in
with the curved walls. Four Seasons Solariums originally used on either end of
the house have been replaced with energy efficient stud and drywall rooms with
large bay windows. Funiture for the living room was created by Wolf Meuller of
Curved Space in Toronto and fits in perfectly with the eliptical architecture.
Even the Refrigerator is round, it rises from the countertop at the touch of a
button, like the one in Fly Away Home.
