Stunning house, designed by SeARCH and Christian Muller Architects, is fully embedded in the alpine landscape of Vals, Switzerland.
The viewing angle from the building is slightly inclined, giving an even more dramatic view of the beautiful mountains. [photos by Iwan Baan]
For more inspiration, check out: 15 Unusual and Creative Buildings
Chad
The railing is unfortunate, but I guess you don’t want anyone dropping by in the wrong sense of the word.
May 9th, 2010
KKL
one word…. Rain??
May 9th, 2010
Chris
@KKL:
Three words – Free swimming pool :P
May 9th, 2010
Sky_pirate
I would love to live in a place like that! So unique!
May 9th, 2010
Alex
Earthquake = Bad.
May 10th, 2010
enav
pretty neat work…. so lovely
May 10th, 2010
Hal
I think that’s the house you WANT to be in if there is an Earthquake. Better that than a 10-story building.
May 10th, 2010
linou
really amasing I want it !!!!!
May 10th, 2010
Curtis
2 words: bomb shelter
May 10th, 2010
dollydigital
One word – Hobbitsz
May 10th, 2010
Muddy
Plenty of underground homes in Coober Pedy in South Australia.I have stayed at an u/g motel there that was similar design as this,rain isn’t a problem,still have drains and rain is kept out the same way as conventional house,just that the roof is earth.Very cool in summer when outside temp is 40 degrees celsius.
May 10th, 2010
Art of Concept
Kinda nice, kinda weird…
But I guess you can really get your friends to “drop” by!
May 10th, 2010
Peter Hodgson
Building an unconventional house has the problem that there is little or no previous experience on behalf of the builders. It is always a risk.
The thing that surprised me was to see the surrounding houses. I would have expected more isolated settings. Maybe there’s not much room for isolation left in the world. :-(
May 10th, 2010
HotGod
The lack of windows increases the claustrophobic feeling one gets from living in such a place.
May 10th, 2010
JBleezy
Reminds me of hobbits!
May 10th, 2010
timmay
@chris it couldn’t be a swimming pool cuz water wuld leak in the house, @kkl i agree wut if it rains? big flood.
May 10th, 2010
Karin L.
I saw underground houses in the 60’s where I live. They are so energy efficient. Why aren’t there more of them?
May 10th, 2010
Machine
Rain: from my point of view this isn´t a real problem, because it is built on a hillside. Before this house will be flooded, the others downhill will be 5-6 meters underwater, guess that´s nearly impossible (in switzerland)
I think one really good thing about building this houses in the alps: it is avalanche-secure, think of that :)
The only bad thing i can see is the lack of light… and to light the whole thing it maybe needs to much power…
I think a vent at the top of that where sunlight can flow in easier would solve that problem.
The big advantage of building underground is natural temperature regulation: it cools down in summer and don´t get that cold in winter.
May 10th, 2010
Crystal B
Wow. My first thought was. TORNADO proof!!!! heh.
It’s really hard to tell, but it seems like there’s a lot of windows, and natural light sources. It is definitely someplace I would live, despite the perk of being an ideal place where you would be tornado safe. (Can you tell that is a concern?)
May 10th, 2010
Fresh
pretty darn neato, except the railing and what about flooding? where would the water go?
May 10th, 2010
Rob
Flash, downhill
May 10th, 2010
Damola
Fantastic, creative, but needs creativity in mapping out an escape root if need be.
May 11th, 2010
mofa
tornado, earthquakes.. idont think that they have these problems there :)
But water could be a problem
May 11th, 2010
Febri Andi Pratama
Amazing, Is this Good Idea….
Inspirations for us…^^
May 12th, 2010
Moo
OH MY GOD IT’S THE SHIRE!!!! I would absolutely love to live there. Love the bathroom, too. I’m assuming they have some sort of drainage system in place for when it rains.
May 12th, 2010
Moo
Also I don’t think lack of sunlight is a problem – there are plenty of windows! I don’t think the house goes back that deep so I’m assuming that every room has at least one window.
May 12th, 2010
AAAAAAAAA
HOBBITS!!!!!!
Lol, it’s probably sloped with a drain somewhere for when it rains.
May 12th, 2010
John
Floods, tornadoes, hobbits? Come on, it’s a damn cool house and you all know it. Probably not the most practical or to everyones taste but that view framed by the round curve is just mad stunning.
May 15th, 2010
samkinkel
For the 21st century bilbo baggins.
May 15th, 2010
RobHimself
Architects, engineers and contractors don’t just build things in the hopes that they might work. I’m pretty sure things like drainage and the structure itself have been well thought out. This seems like a pretty solid design to me, I’d love to have a place like that! Granted, I’d rather not have other houses right there, but it looks like they don’t really affect the view too much being at a lower elevation.
May 18th, 2010
chetan haria
Cute, Lovely, I would like to own
May 27th, 2010
bty
Underground houses are actually safer in the event of an earthquake, or fire, and I’m sure they’ve taken care of drainage.
Aug 24th, 2010
Kenneth Connolly
Giant Domestic Mole Hole – Not for me. No back door! Have urge to fill hole with dirt LOL. Bizarre earth crater.
Sep 19th, 2010
:)
hobbit!!!!
Sep 21st, 2010
Ex
well , i dont like the position of house it could be higher up the hill ..i mean owner could buy more land at slopes to have peace n quiet + could use sun & wind energy to power house …..enterier is bit clumsy done with furniture ..claustrofobic instead to be more open modern place for daily activities ..as paradox to the underground placing i like mixture of materials used but confusion in using furnoture is visible .i liked how enterance had been done (spacy) ..maybe + garage for eletrical car to be stored & connected to the main structure by tunnel
Oct 20th, 2010
Tin
Woah. Construction for this must be hard.
Well, still nice.
Feb 16th, 2011