Underground Mansions

Typically, when one thinks of living underground, it conjures up images of Bilbo Baggins relaxing with a nice pipe in his Hobbit Hole. While books of fantasy have made living underground quite appealing and adventurous, for many people it has become a way of life.

Underground Mansion

A few individuals, couples, families have decided to live in underground mansions as a means of helping to save the environment and also live in style (swimming pools, theatres, tennis courts). Now, environmentalists many be conflicted about the whole "mansion" thing including more building materials used, but there are at least four distinct advantages to living in an underground luxury home (which are true of most subsurface houses).

4 Advantages …

The first advantage of burrowing deep into the countryside is the weather. Up on the surface, the weather can take a serious toll on your home. Rain, sleet, snow, and wind can do serious damage to your house. When your home is beneath the surface, these are no longer problems you need to worry about. Temperatures underground stay about the same all year long, regardless of season. The average temperature is around 60 degrees. This means you no longer need to spend massive amounts of money to warm or cool your home, which means less fossil fuels being burned as well.

Steve Martin's Earth Bermed Mansion in Santa Barbara, California

Second, constructing a mansion underground means less destruction of the natural habitats of the Earth (your rooftop can be a garden). Mankind has been progressing, which isn't a bad thing, but often times it is at the expense of a particular environment and the creatures that live in that habitat. Living underground means that people will no longer seek to destroy these environments, nor will they need to do so to construct adequate living quarters. This will help preserve wildlife for future generations to enjoy. Other creatures will have the freedom to move about without worry of being entangled in mankind's machines and technology.

Third, living in underground mansions puts you in closer proximity to nature. While big cities seem to have pushed many of us closer together, the truth of the matter is, we've never been farther apart. This type of lifestyle would lead to people being closer to animals and life they never would've been close to in the surface world. This will give individuals a deeper respect for the diversity of life that can be found on Earth. With a deeper respect, comes a deeper sense of responsibility for the care of the planet.

Green Underground Mansion

Fourth, saving energy is possible with a luxury underground dwelling. If the subsurface dream home is equipped with renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, microhydro or a combination, then the mansion could actually be a clean energy producer rather than a dark energy taker.

Community Matters …

Whole communities could be built underground where everyone could be connected, yet still have their own personal spaces. These kinds of large, comfortable luxury homes would reduce the amount of carbon being pumped into the atmosphere, and would end up saving people a lot of money when it comes to their energy bills.

Conclusion

The culture today is shifting, as more people are becoming aware of the damage that people have done to the environment, and they continue to search for ways to become more efficient. While there are only a handful of people living in mansions deep underground (think converted decommission missile silos), it could perhaps, one day in the not so distant future, become normal to see whole families or even towns spring up under the earth.

Written by Kevin Knatloa

Updated February 10, 2015