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Millions In China Live In Energy Efficient Caves
Hugh Pickens writes "Barbara Demick reports in the LA Times that more than 30 million Chinese people live in caves, many of them in Shaanxi province, where the Loess plateau, with its distinctive cliffs of yellow, porous soil, makes digging easy and cave dwelling a reasonable option. The better caves protrude from mountains and are reinforced with brick masonry. Some are connected laterally so a family can have several chambers. Electricity and even running water can be brought in. 'Most aren't so fancy, but I've seen some really beautiful caves: high ceilings and spacious with a nice yard out front where you can exercise and sit in the sun,' says Ren, who works as a driver in the Shaanxi provincial capital, Xian. 'It's cool in the summer and warm in the winter. It's quiet and safe.' In recent years, architects have been reappraising the cave in environmental terms, and they like what they see. 'It is energy efficient. The farmers can save their arable land for planting if they build their houses in the slope. It doesn't take much money or skill to build,' says Liu Jiaping, director of the Green Architecture Research Center in Xian and perhaps the leading expert on cave living. Liu helped design and develop a modernized version of traditional cave dwellings that in 2006 was a finalist for a World Habitat Award, sponsored by a British foundation dedicated to sustainable housing. Meanwhile, a thriving market around Yanan means a cave with three rooms and a bathroom (a total of 750 square feet) can be advertised for sale at $46,000. 'Life is easy and comfortable here. I don't need to climb stairs. I have everything I need,' says 76-year-old Ma Liangshui. 'I've lived all my life in caves, and I can't imagine anything different.'"
Will advanced civilizations one day find our remains and conclude we were cave dwellers?
It's all well and good to praise this: "Life is easy and comfortable here". But... really? I would only live in a cave like this when my previous house was in a slump and this is slightly less miserable.
I haven't read the articles; are these the same caves that collapse every time that area gets a strong earthquake, causing a huge humanitarian crisis as all of the occupants are buried under the hill?
All the silly safety laws here will make cave dwelling illegal as there are no egress windows in every room and at least two exit doors.
Because if the cave burns, you cant get out.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I have a cave at my place as well. It's got a beer fridge, wide-screen TV, and power tools. Belching and farting is not only permitted but encouraged.
between living in a cave and your parents basement?
No brain, no pain.
"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."
I expect, within a week, to find at least one person rambling that 'All the liberal ecocommies want us to go back to living in caves and mud huts.'
why is it that arable land counts for so little in western (at least north american) societies? isn't it a bit of a shame we devote so much land to lawns, rather than something productive? yes, I know: the crops that could be grown are not worth the cost of maintaining them. but why is that? is food too cheap, or labor too expensive? is it a distortion caused by exchange rates?
I wouldn't mind a part-cave house, especially since a cave would presumably be near some sort of elevation (hillside, escarpment). I think everyone values a bit of a view, some sunlit rooms, etc. but one-story houses on flat plots of land are pretty boring once they scale past a cottage.
since they've been living in a cave
I visited the caves in Tunisia that were used whilst filming Star Wars and they seemed ideal for the environment. Cool, private and comfortable would suit me just fine. Relocate it to Canada and shovelling snow would be an appalling prospect but a more appropriate underground dwelling still has plenty of advantages year round.
Else they might have to deal with all sorts of megabeasts in the underworld.
Never a day passes where I don't think back to those horrors. I'll miss you guys.
When I bought my house, they warned me the radon was a bit high and I needed to perform radon remediation. THe problem was my sub-pump not being sealed so radon was leaking out of it and into my house.
That's all well and good, but at the time my thought was wouldn't a cave be even more dangerous? If radon comes from the ground, wouldn't it leak out of the floor into the cave?
Just curious.
Earthen berms (Hobbit holes) were all the rage in the early 1970's, just after the OPEC crisis. By the late 1970's, lots of people discovered firsthand the problems with trapped moisture, lack of ventilation, lack of natural light, and lack of egress options.
I think the soil and climate conditions in Shaanxi are relatively unique, so they might get away without the moisture problems.
You're lucky to live in a cave! We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank.
The permit process would dash any hopes. Habitability inspection.... Sanitation requirements.... In most places, electrical hookup to the grid is a legal requirement. Also, if childrens services found out, there goes your kids.
I wonder if anyone has ever checked the level of radon gas in these caves?
We have plenty of methods to make houses that don't require energy, and if they do to build them so the generate what they need..
I hope they are embarking with shallow metals because they don't seem to be digging very deep.
Do they sometimes set aside rooms for the husband to pursue his hobbies in and call it a man house?
I've lived all my life in apartment buildings (Second and fifth floor, not counting the ground floor) and were an earthquake to occur, I'm not at all certain that it's preferable over small-ish caves containing a couple of rooms... Naturally, that's not that important if they aren't in area prone to earthquakes.
Hell, I'd love to live in a cave like that, provided that it'd have electricity and all.
But these guys will.. GG
I like how the article makes out as if living in a cave is some sort of revolutionary idea.
While it seems the Chinese have been doing it in much greater numbers for a great many more years, they aren't the only ones to know how much sense it can make.
If you ever visit Australia and venture into the outback, there are a number of places where people live in caves, the most famous being Coober Pedy. The cave homes and even the hotel are very cozy in winter and very cool in summer and I found them to be quite charming in the couple of times I have been there.
I can't be the only one who thought of Minecraft while reading that.
Do you live in a cave?
There are very good reasons we don't live in caves any more.
When travelling by rail, many of the hillsides had small cave entrances everywhere, i'm pretty sure it was not just in Shaanxi province, i kinda figured some people may be living in them, or they were root cellars for crop storage.
Nice to see a photo of the inside of one.
They are lucky to be able to live in a cave. I had to live in the lake.
http://youtu.be/WRxjqOcvxoE
I hope they are prepared....
And that are low-maintenance....
Namely, fruit trees. Pick the right varieties and you don't even need to spray them.
My yearly maintenance burden for them is, I'd say, below 8 hours including harvest--though part of that 8 hours is late-summer pruning to keep the trees SMALL.
They also require far less water than grass, maybe by as much as a factor of 10.
Best,
--PM
'I've lived all my life in caves, and I can't imagine anything different.'"
That's because you've lived all your life in caves.
Radon
Air quality (unless all the bathroom business and cooking is done outside).
You better like the temperature inside, because you're certainly not burning anything to keep warm: carbon monoxide and low oxygen.
But not a lot of noise complaints I bet.
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Queue obligatory GEICO commercial...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5JV0Fs_GE8
Just another day in Paradise
Millions in China Live in Energy Efficient Caves"
Meanwhile, back in the US, millions of slashdot subscribers live in energy efficient basements.
Man has lived in energy efficient caves for thousands of years...
"We must not allow it happen" - Turgidson
I tried setting fire to a cave once, it's a lot harder than it seems.
I tried to build a castle once, but it fell into the swamp!
So it's the Chinese that were the forerunners of the dwarven race! Who knew?
...for a nice cosy Saturday night cave-in.
Just a comment on safety. Alot of people seem to site the earthquake in Shaanxi (456 years ago) as a major reason why living in caves is not viable, and no doubt it affected alot of people (although in China, a city/town of 2/3 million people does not imply a large metropolitan centre as it does in North America). I wonder what the risk would be minus all the other possible natural disasters that may not afflict a cave-dweller (or to a lesser degree)? Not including fires and other emergencies that affect only a single person or family. Would you have to concern yourself with tornadoes (as in the praire-lands), tsunamis or flooding (near coastal areas), etc... What about those earthquakes (and their aftermath like tsunamis and fires) that occur in densly populated urban centres (as in the Sichuan province, or recent disasters like Haiti, Thailand, and Japan)? Of course, all those would still depend on where your cave is located. I think either a tonne of concete or 100 tonnes of rock would kill me regardless of where I lived if it fell on my head. I think it's more a question of how often a devastating disaster (the "big one" as we look for near the Pacific Rim) will occur, and to a lesser degree if my house can withstand it.
Many dwellings in Coober Pedy are underground. Very practical, considering the temperatures it can reach outside. Much more efficient than using air conditioning to cope with the higher temperatures. Some of the dwelling interiors look very nice indeed! Yes, some do look like holes; I know, what did I expect. There's even an underground church and underground hotel. All in all, looks like a very pleasant way to live.
How can a place without natural light be efficient?
It can actually be very nice if it's finished properly. I would love to live in something like this:
http://inhabitat.com/gorgeous-modern-home-is-built-inside-a-cave/cavehome-ed05/
All the comforts of a nice home with natural walls and ceiling insuring very little heat/AC is required. A missile silo might be nice, but there's no windows (save possibly a skylight) and it will cost a lot to make livable.
Thousands In USA Live on the streets because greedy banks steal their homes.
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