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