[HN Gopher] 10-acre underground home and gardens in Fresno (2023...
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10-acre underground home and gardens in Fresno (2023) [video]
Author : 8bitsrule
Score : 147 points
Date : 2024-07-16 18:07 UTC (3 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| about3fitty wrote:
| I have been both to this site and to Coober Pedy, South
| Australia. Pretty neat bit of architectural convergent evolution
| for extremely high temperature environments.
| illuminant wrote:
| It astounds me that these things do not catch on.
| rbanffy wrote:
| I wonder if there aren't zoning laws that create incentives
| for or against some of these approaches. In dry places the
| living space can be connected to rain-collecting cisterns
| that further help to reduce evaporation losses. When you free
| the surface to other uses, you can also generate power from
| wind or solar (and solar also helps to protect the top soil
| from evaporative losses).
| lazide wrote:
| Also, Radon. [https://www.epa.gov/radon/epa-map-radon-
| zones-0]
| joshuanapoli wrote:
| I think that underground or earth bermed homes are often
| failures. There are different water and ventilation concerns
| for these. An above ground home is pretty accessible for
| repairs, but these can be nearly impossible if the home is
| underground.
| bombcar wrote:
| This is what kills most "non-standard" homes and buildings
| - anywhere in the world.
|
| If you build an American-style house in Bavaria it may end
| up a disaster because nobody around knows the building
| materials or how to fix it.
|
| It gets even worse when it's entirely custom like this
| Skywalker style house, where it's a one-off using
| techniques nobody knows. You need a dedicated maintenance
| crew for that so they can learn all about it over time.
|
| So something like this could work for a largish company, or
| a college campus, but as a one-off house it's going to be
| expensive and eventually abandoned.
| ramesh31 wrote:
| It's neat as an art project, but we aren't hobbits. People
| like windows.
| illuminant wrote:
| While true, high ceilings with light scoops could be the
| rage.
| saalweachter wrote:
| > In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a
| nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and
| an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing
| in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and
| that means comfort.
|
| > ... The best rooms were all on the left-hand side (going
| in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set
| round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond,
| sloping down to the river.
| Aurornis wrote:
| > It astounds me that these things do not catch on.
|
| Basements are very common throughout the country. Once you've
| built a basement, you might as well put a house on the next
| floor up.
|
| Modern insulation technology is very effective. It's much
| cheaper to put a lot of insulation in the above-ground
| portion of a house than to try to build the equivalent area
| entirely below the grade.
|
| Building entirely below the surface without putting anything
| on top would be massively expensive compared to the same
| square footage in a traditional home, even if you accounted
| for equivalent insulation and cooling costs. It's not even
| close.
| dicroce wrote:
| I lived in Fresno for 15 years. I spent north of $400 bucks
| a month on AC in the summertime (starts in June and goes
| till early November). I lived in a new home with modern
| insulation.
|
| I now live in NY and I have a basement. It's generally
| about 10 degrees cooler. I would have loved that in Fresno.
| vondur wrote:
| Fresno is in earthquake country, so they don't really build
| them here. However, it looks like this place has held up
| just fine over the years.
| infecto wrote:
| It does not astound me. Building things underground is
| expensive and in a lot of cases not cost effective compared
| to the cost of electricity at human scale.
| _giorgio_ wrote:
| Nice being there in the event of a flood.
|
| You can accomplish better insulation and thermal mass above the
| ground, while having better ventilation and less humidity.
| nick7376182 wrote:
| You can accomplish better thermal mass?
| changoplatanero wrote:
| well this particular site has survived 98 years. I wonder if it
| ever got flooded and then restored or if it went the whole time
| without flood damage
| foobarian wrote:
| My whole childhood I dreamed of digging secret tunnels and
| chambers all throughout my future house and yard etc. Imagine
| my dismay when I found out about water table and ventilation
| :-(
| _giorgio_ wrote:
| Sewers can last millennia.
| gnicholas wrote:
| Presumably this wouldn't work in areas that flood, but Fresno
| isn't one of them. I also wondered about earthquakes, which are
| a risk in some parts of CA.
| eutropia wrote:
| YT Comment from the video creator: > Since so
| many people have asked about what happens when it rains, here
| is Shera's response: "Baldassare actually put drainage systems
| in place! Many of the rooms are built on a grade and sump pits
| are placed in strategic areas throughout the Underground
| Gardens where the water is directed to collect and reuse. While
| it does get muddy underground, we do not deal with any serious
| flooding."
| fitsumbelay wrote:
| This is a great, very fascinating YouTube channel.
|
| Dirksen travels North America and Europe with her husband and 3
| or 4 kids documenting home designs of all types. Lots of tiny
| homes in Los Angeles and California ( I believe one or two in
| Toronto ) as well as Western Europe. Her husband is from
| Catalunya so they've a bunch of clips from there. There's also
| one of a man who build a home sort of next to or inside a cave.
|
| The coolest clips by far are ones of ancient abandoned villages
| and compounds (I think one castle-like structure) in Spain,
| Portugal and Italy that individuals took over and converted into
| homes.
| y-c-o-m-b wrote:
| I used to watch her videos back when she had very little
| followers. I'm glad to see she picked up so many subscribers,
| it's well deserved. I enjoy the way she interacts with the
| people because it seems more natural than the other heavily
| edited/pro formats.
| fitsumbelay wrote:
| Agreed on all points. Her family is a big part of that casual
| interaction since they're young enough to be super active and
| curious. They seem to get on especially well with older
| subjects
|
| I only just discovered her during the pandemic and since then
| a lot of copy cat projects've popped up and moved on to
| bigger streaming platforms. I'd buy a DVD/Blu-Ray collection
| of her YouTubes
| johnohara wrote:
| Kirsten has a way of bringing out the enthusiastic,
| knowledgeable, and happy in people she interviews.
|
| A rare gift that she combines with superb editing.
| gsuuon wrote:
| I really like her content, especially the earthship videos. The
| 'home engineering' that goes into these buildings is awesome.
| Though I'll probably never get to build one, would happily play
| a game based on this (like some sort of physics based survival
| game? Is this a thing?)
| hosh wrote:
| The earthship design includes a lot of ideas from
| permaculture design. Dirksen has also toured Brad
| Landcaster's site, in which the permaculture design is very
| obvious, and it is not an earthship. Those design principles
| and method applies to any region, biome, or climate, so even
| if you may never get to build an earthship, you can still use
| permaculture design wherever you land.
| throwaway920102 wrote:
| I love Dirksen, and a very similar channel on YT is called
| Exploring Alternatives
|
| https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8EQAfueDGNeqb1ALm0LjHA
| fuzztester wrote:
| I've seen a few videos from that channel.
|
| downtoearth is another good one.
| Mistletoe wrote:
| Very Uncle Owen on Tattoine vibe, I love it. Moisture farmers.
| ianbicking wrote:
| Totally off topic, but what is happening with YouTube ads? I'm
| getting 30 to 90 second unskippable videos before every video.
| This time it gave me two in a row. If I go to another tab it
| starts over, often with a longer ad.
| ynac wrote:
| Search for the video in DuckDuckGo, flip to video, and watch it
| in there. No commercials.
| PessimalDecimal wrote:
| I had started to think YT ads were getting worse recently but
| had convinced myself it was a frequency illusion. Interesting
| that others seem to be thinking that same thing though...
| kjkjadksj wrote:
| They came out and said they are making them worse, its not an
| illusion.
| FactKnower69 wrote:
| addressed somewhat to HN commenters in general and not just
| to you: it's okay to trust your first hand observations and
| real life experience from time to time instead of constantly
| reaching for increasingly complicated explanations for why
| you must be wrong when your experience doesn't match the data
| you've been fed
| porkbeer wrote:
| My adblocker still works fine. Occasionally have to reload the
| page for video to play.
| ianbicking wrote:
| What are you using for an adblocker? I'm using uBlock (I
| thought it was uBlock Origin but apparently not now that I'm
| looking), and it also stopped blocking YouTube ads. (When it
| did block ads I'd have a 15-30 second black screen that I had
| to wait through.)
| bn-l wrote:
| Only use ublock origin
| johnny22 wrote:
| ublock origin is what you want to be using. ublock was the
| original project and the maintainer gave up maintenance to
| someone else. It didn't work out, so he came back and
| forked it as ublock origin. If you are having problems with
| ublock origin, read the troubleshooting section of the docs
| (or whatever they call it)
| codazoda wrote:
| I feel like they started to get really bad when YouTube started
| offering the monthly subscription.
| jweir wrote:
| This is wonderful - however I feel a bit sad that is a museum
| rather than an active place people live. So many examples of
| wonderful architecture in California, but they are museums, and
| around them are built sub par structures.
| changoplatanero wrote:
| I think you can rent it out as an event space if you wanted to
| have your wedding there!
| chiph wrote:
| Not just California - The Alamo in San Antonio is surrounded by
| cheap tourist stores.
|
| It was run by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas for years
| and they did a great job but didn't have any influence over the
| zoning around the Mission. It is now run by the Alamo Trust and
| they have a plan and the ability to restore the plaza area
| around it.
|
| https://www.thealamo.org/support/alamo-plan
| hosh wrote:
| I was passing through Fresno last week, on the way back from a
| family trip. I'll have to check it out.
|
| The California High Speed Rail is being constructed, so
| hopefully, by the next trip, I can just pop into Fresno via HSR.
| TaylorAlexander wrote:
| According to Wikipedia the first section, which includes
| Fresno, is currently expected to commence service in 2030-2033.
| Hope you have another trip before then!
|
| Don't feel too bad though. I'm simply waiting for them to
| continue the Bay Bridge bicycle path from Yerba Buena Island to
| San Francisco (completing the Oakland to SF bicycle path) and
| that's also not slated for completion till 2030.
| hosh wrote:
| I hope so too!
|
| We drove through Merced and saw the new line in and around
| town. I guess I wasn't paying attention in Fresno.
| TheRealPomax wrote:
| Hotel, not home. It may have _started_ as "man was not meant to
| live in these temperatures" but it turned into a phenomenally
| ahead-of-its-time idea.
|
| We went there a few years ago and it's insane that what you see
| is only half of what he did: the family was stupid enough to buy
| half and then destroy it "to use the land". In the category "not
| understanding what you have", this one's up there.
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(page generated 2024-07-19 23:04 UTC)