Earth-sheltered building: an alternative in energy conservation for New Zealand?

Abstract

Earth-sheltered building has become increasingly popular overseas for a wide range of building uses and for a variety of reasons. In New Zealand,at present, there are two incomplete houses and one government building that are earth-sheltered. Architect involvement in earth-sheltering has been fairly minimal to date, but one Wellington architect is keen to share his knowledge and philosophies. The lack of built of examples in which to monitor energy use means that estimates of energy consumption are best obtained by using computer simulations. While MICROPAS has some limitations, results show that earth-sheltered building is a viable alternative for energy conservation, with the exception that construction costs make it less of an attractive proposition in relation to other alternatives.