Earth-cooled, shipping container underground CA home for 30K
Kirsten Dirksen2 HN recommenders · recommended in 2 months, 2018–2021
documentary · general · evergreen · 2018–2021 on HN
Kirsten Dirksen profiles Steve Rees, who buried two shipping containers to build an earth-cooled, off-grid 640 sq ft home in Northern California for about $30,000, solar included.
Recommended as an example of earth-sheltered housing and as part of a channel HN loves for architecture and efficiency.
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3 comments from Hacker News
I can't recommend Kirsten Dirksen's channel enough to people interested in architecture, energy efficiency, tiny homes, 'green' construction, etc. Literally hundreds of hours of high-quality content - I'm really curious how she is able to find all of these interesting people who are doing such cool things. Channel: link Some other favorites: Baubotanik shapes living tree branches into building facades - link Boeing retiree finds meaning inventing micro homes & high speed trikes - link Extreme transformer home in Hong Kong: Gary Chang's 24 rooms in 1 - link Earth-cooled, shipping container underground CA home for 30K - ▶ this video Yokohama narrow tiny house "breathes" & attracts local nature - link
I live in the desert as well. I'd love to have a house with better insulation to spend less on AC. Earth sheltered homes seems like a great way to do that (though there are other problems - e.g. moisture, heavier roof). ▶ this video , link - here's a couple examples (she has visited others as well. Short of that I'd settle for a basement. Someday perhaps.
I think they had someone w/ some engineering skill do it, so it was structurally sound and all... I'm not sure if this is the exact same one I saw, but it's similar enough... ▶ this video