Ask HN: How do I start building an underground community | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do I start building an underground community

4 pointsjelliclesfarm5 comments

Consider this a thought experiment:

1. Community of 200 people. 2. All dwellings underground or in half sunken earth bermed homes. 3. If the terrain is mountains, they building partly on the facade. 4. Underground greenhouses for aquaponics or hydroponics to capture. 5. Orchards and grain/livestock above ground 6. Entertainment and recreational facilities above ground 7. For the underground dwellings, capturing earths geo thermal energy for passive heat. 8. Light tubes and massive windows to let in a lot of light.

Challenges:

Waste management Humidity control Air flow/ventilation

The idea is to exploit subterranean housing just like we did with vertical sky scrapers. Perhaps it makes more sense to go below than to build above.

Thoughts?

Sounds very fun and full of interesting challenges. It's not directly applicable because they didn't use underground dwellings, but you might appreciate the book "One Straw Revolution" for the spirit of community and simplicity of growing food. Maybe some people on permies.com would be interested or have advice.

Yes. I am a member there. Very interesting stuff. Won’t necessarily scale, but I am not looking to scale. 200-250 seems you be the dunbaresque number for a subterranean community.

Another challenge: drainage management. You will have leaks.

I was thinking spraying shotcrete. Not an engineer. Book knowledge etc.

Elon Musk has the boring tunnels...so surely we have the ability...it seems to be such a waste to build up when we can dig down.

There's a whole complex system of pumps and drains that take care of this. Same is true for any subway system, underground parking, etc. It ain't gonna be cheap though.

EDIT: shotcrete will help some, but is not a solution to. You need a membrane as all concrete is permeable.

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