THE UNDERGROUND HOME at the New York World's Fair is developed to serve as a prototype for future underground residential design. Built to incorporate the best and most practical features of a series of pilot homes—one of which has been lived in for over 3 years—the UNDERGROUND HOME offers a complete first hand view of construction and operating details of underground living.
Unique Construction: The entire 10-room home with its "outdoor" terrace and garden areas encased in a concrete steel shell, is sunk fifteen feet underneath a landscaped garden. The shell, which measures 70' wide by 80' long provides a floor area of 5,600 square feet and encloses well over 75.5 thousand cubic feet of air. The World's Fair home is totally moisture proof.
Inside the shell, the living area is divided into "exterior' and "interior" areas. Over the home's ceilings are passage ways carrying utility lines and plumbing pipes to provide easy access for repairs and alterations.
Connecting the interior of the shell with the outside is a custom-built air system that draws air from the bottom of a breathing tube or "Snorkel" down through a mechanical equipment room. There the air temperature, humidity and pressure are regulated at will. From the equipment room, air flows under the floor of the house, circulates through the entire shell and returns to the outside via the "Snorkel." The air filtration system can be modified to cope with overhead dust and sandstorms and even to remove fallout particles.
The room also contains a 20KW diesel generator with an automatic, seven second cut-in in case of outside electrical utility failure, a sewage lift and an automatic sewage ejector.
Luxurious Living: Every detail of the UNDERGROUND HOME has been developed to illustrate the luxury which underground living can provide.
"Murals of Light" surround the home. Every room in the house looks out on a panoramic landscape lit by special effects in all shades of daylight and nighttime. Dimmers and a specially designed low-voltage light control system permit a rising sun effect in the kitchen, while a star-filled night blankets the "outdoor" patio.
Carefree Living: UNDERGROUND HOMES at the World's Fair and elsewhere require little or no maintenance—no windows to wash or replace, no exteriors to paint, no roof to repair. The unique air-purification system makes dust-ing once a month more than adequate. Corroding smog and polluted air cannot affect roofing, metal equipment or masonry in this filtered-air home. Controlled lighting does away with fading of upholstery, paints and carpets, leaving them fresh and cleaner longer.
In an underground home, the decor of one's choice can be blended with a favorite "outside" view; the time of day or night may be "dialed" to fit any mood or occasion. Here, in a home recently completed under a Colorado peak, the "outside" views span a continent with San Francisco's Golden Gate to the West and New York's skyline to the East. (1) Entrance by daylight, at sunset and evening, (2) Living Room, (3) Dining Room, (4) Terrace with swimming pool, (5) Terrace's New York City vista.
