Abstract Outline, rough draft

Underground Circular Framing

            The point of this study is to determine whether or not building an underground house to the style of a hobbit hole, rather than a standard underground house, is feasible.

            First off there are several types of underground houses, the first type are called “bermed houses”, where the house is partially buried, usually the roof and a wall or two is exposed. And the second types are called “chambered houses” where the only things you can see are the windows and doors. For this research we will be focusing on the latter. To build an underground house the jobsite must first be prepped, the crew must excavate topsoil and earth where the house is to reside, and then the construction begins. Like a standard above grade house, the chambered house starts with the foundation and works its way up, the only difference is that underground houses don’t need cladding or exterior finishes on the outer walls, they do however, need more insulation and load bearing strength. Earth is a bad insulator, even worse is damp earth. It’s just a great capacitor (stores heat), the dirt is also a good conductor, best way to control this is too install rigid installation in the home’s exterior fabric, do not put insulation on the interior of the wall, the cold earth will be able to affect the exterior of the house and cause structural damage, during the hotter seasons of the year the earth roof gets cool from the respiration of plant life and evaporation of moisture off the earth keep the building cool, (Roy R (1994) The complete book of underground houses). Obviously some limitations apply, you can’t build an underground house wherever you like (due to poor soil conditions or heavy seismic activity) nor can you build a multi story building underground, within the realm of reason.

            Currently this research has already showed the underground houses are greener. They provide increased resistance to weather and natural disasters and close to a constant interior temperature, due to the fact that the house is underground. Yet hobbit homes require a greater amount of materials compared to a typical submerged underground house, due to the circular shape, this being said, they do offer more space inside the structure. The materials used can include “concrete blocks, reinforced concrete, stone, membrane, rigid insulation, moisture barrier, and then a drainage mat” (Ricketts, S (2004) A Guide to Canadian Architectural styles) this can be applied for the walls/ceiling for a circular framed house. Research has also shown, according to calculations, that a circular framed building will be able to withstand a greater weight load than typical framing; this is due to the force being distributed throughout more of the frame, instead of just the walls, (Dorf, R (2005) The Engineering Handbook)..  They may not use a given amount of space most efficiently but it certainly would bring an abundance of privacy. Also due to the layout of hobbit holes, which include many hallways and/or corridors, pockets of earth, soil and possibly even rock, can provide additional load bearing support to the structure, as it would be similar to having wide pillars or columns running throughout the design. So for the extra cash this home will cost, several benefits include more space, and more of a durable environment

Assignment 3 - Abstract outline
Last assignment for the course.
The outline is basically a summary of our research report that was created earlier in the semester. The paper will help outline our applied research topic to people involved in our field of study. The abstract will be used in order to help find a mentor for our project. The mentor has to be from the ARET faculty, and may only have 6 pupils tops.

The abstract will contain information about where i currently am in my research, and what direction I want to take to finish my project. It will also contain the thesis question/statement "is Building an Underground house to the style of a hobbit hole, rather than a standard underground house, feasible?"along with the information i have gathered in answering said question, but you"ll have to wait to read it ;)

The Outline will also include graphics and cited references, then the whole thing will be posted on this blog shortly after the Easter holidays.

An unusual Underground home...

Here's a you tube video that shows an underground house that was originally a US missile silo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_liNYkZn_M

The clips shows several silo rooms that have been transformed into livable spaces.

Hallway Surface area comparison for walls and ceiling

Just real quick wanted to make a post about surface areas when it comes to hallways!

 

 Here we have a standard hallway (4 foot by 8 foot) and next to it a circular hallway (note: the bottom flat surface is 4 foot wide and from the edges of that flat surface straight up is 8 foot to the arc, very top of the ceiling is a little higher than 8 foot)

Assuming the lengths of each hallway are the same , lets say 5 feet, the total surface area for the standard hallway is:

8ft x 5ft = 40sq ft ( x 2 for the other wall) = 80sq ft

4ft x 5ft = 20sq ft

equaling 100sq ft

For the round hallway:

287.4272 inches / 12 = 23.9523ft 

23.9523ft x 5ft = 119.7613sq ft

Extra surface area just under 20%

A Section of Exterior wall from Earth-Sheltered Houses by Rob Roy or underground houses.

Breaking Down the Thesis question.

Instead of trying to tackle this question head on, breaking it down into more manageable pieces may prove to provide a superior understanding to the answer of this question.

Applied research report (preliminary thoughts)
Planning on a layout that presents a question, in this case, "Is building an underground house to the style of a hobbit hole rather than a standard underground house, more feasible? what are the similarities/differences?"  still unsure if I want to commit to this direction, more research still has to be done, other possible question could be "what kind of materials and how much would be used to build this house, vs. a standard underground house?"
Following the question (whatever it is) the next stage of the report would be to answer it, as well as breaking the answer into steps.
Comments and feedback are welcome, if anyone has anything to say don't be shy!

Thought I'd use the floor plan from a hobbit hole, why must they make them so difficult or why would they need so much space, good grief.
Floor plan was located on mymiddleearch.com
(Click on plan to enlarge!)

Research Proposal.

Underground Circular framing

Summary Statement: During the past winter season many people watched The Hobbit and this research is about seeing if those homes can be conveniently built and if they are worth the extra effort to build, by that I mean the way the framing is constructed, if you haven’t seen this movie or don’t recall the types of houses involved try to imagine a house completely submerged into the ground and having very circular framing, their doors, windows, even hallways and the rooms inside are round in design.

Purpose: To gain insight in framing underground structures and determine the feasibility and potential benefits they provide, such as greater climate capacity due to the amount of materials used, and possibly use less material if circular framing (structural members that are arced and or curved) can be proven to withstand the same load standard framing can. This may have an impact on the design and building homes depending on how you wish to construct a house. The plan is to test several framing styles each under an ever increasing load and determine whether it’s worth the extra effort for the benefits for each style of framework, as well as to find out how difficult it is to build a house with circular framing. Research along this topic would prove beneficial to the area of construction and design for houses all around, not just ones completely underground as every place suffers from a load in which must be held.

Goals and Objectives: My main reasoning behind this research is to understand what it takes to build an underground house, in this case a scaled down version, with similar aspects to a ‘hobbit hole’ and determine if it’s worth the extra effort to make a house with arches and round framing methods against the way it can hold a load compared to if a normally framed house was placed under ground. By the end of this research I will be able to determine an answer for other people if they want to build a house just like the one in the movie, and why would someone want a house like that? Almost all underground houses are very environmentally friendly. They have a really high capacity to store a temperature and keep the inside environment at a comfortable level without the use of climate control technology. But as a bonus to the advantages of a green house the way they look with circular framing is just unique and very comforting.

Methodology and analytical approach: My thinking for this project can be broken into two categories, design and structure. For this research project I will start learning more about underground housing and the types of framing involved with houses used currently. As well as what extra precautions are needed to build structures underground (moisture could be a potential problem to wood, especially in soil) I can’t say I’ve ever built an underground house or even a model that was to be buried so I wish to learn all that I can from published sources. Once I am confident in what I’ve gathered I will then build my models, each with the same floor plan layout as well as being only one story high (to reduce load against the walls). During the building phase a record of will be kept to log how long each model took to build, how much material was used, and if any problems arose. Once the models are finished its time to set them into the earth and slowly apply a load till the model fails. The results will contain a series of pros and cons for each method and will help determine if circular framing is feasible.

Previous studies: Many studies have been done to determine how much a certain framed house can withstand a load, and there are many different styles of framing, following this are studies that deal with what kind of loads or even stresses and pressures that are applied not just to the roof a building but to the walls and foundations as well. In several parts of North America, depending on location, their building code actually covers seismic activities. This research is unique in a way that underground houses always have an applied load for the top and sides of the structure, researching this topic will shed some light on sustainable building for building even under constant strain from pressure.  The Complete Book of Underground Houses has tips about how to properly ‘Set” the house in the ground, whereas the Engineering Handbook covers topics of how to support a structure.

Plans for Dissemination of Work: I currently have a blog of my research project you may follow the link or visit it the site if you wish http://c-gartner.blogspot.ca/ . Research and progress updates will be posted here as they are completed for people who want to follow the progress.

References:

- Roy, R (1994). - The Complete Book of Underground Houses 

- Roy, R (2006). - Earth-Sheltered Houses 

- Bijen, J (2003). - Durability of Engineering Structures 

- Sydenham, P.H. (2004) - Systems Approach to Engineering Design 

- Ricketts, S (2004) - A Guide to Canadian Architectural Styles

- Dorf, R (2005) - The Engineering Handbook

Contribution of the Project: For this project I plan on designing and building several models to test, for load as well as effort to build. These models will then be buried in the ground with an ever increasing load; luckily my neighbors/uncle owns a bobcat and excavating service so digging and apply pressure will not be an issue. The material is going to be the same for all three models, right now, I’m considering using wood as it is most often the standard choice when building a house, but in addition I will be adding some other materials to make the models as realistic as possible. This project presented an opportunity that I plan to use to satisfy my architectural side, the idea of building something that is healthy for the planet, looks amazing and could prove useful to others was an absolute no brainer, let’s see how hard it is and find out the pros and cons for building a hobbit house.

Budget: Construction materials will be needed for this project. I will build the models myself. My uncle owns a bobcat business, which will drastically save time. I also have enough land and space to perform this on the property I was raised on, however it is in Penticton. The following is an estimate for this research.

- Equipment Operator -$100.00 

- Materials for constructing the models -$300.00 

- Travel Expenses (Greyhound Ticket to Penticton) -$85.00

- Tools -$65.00 

 - TOTAL -$550.00

Blog is up!

Hey, Welcome to my Blog!

This page represents work and progress for my research project for UNDERGROUND HOUSES
For this topic I will consider some of the following topics related to underground houses
Cost
Insulation (How well this house holds a temperature)
Structure (with a constant load on the roof, what possible designs would last the longest)
Durability ( Surviving natural disasters, or getting destroyed by them)
Time to build 

-All compared to regular houses-