About us
The history of underground houses
Dozens of cultures around the world, from the Arctic ice to dry Australia and the deserts of Africa, have left traces of houses built partly or entirely under a layer of earth.
The reason is simple. The earth around the house buffers summer heat and winter frost: its temperature barely changes over the day and swings far less over the year than the air does. It does this naturally, with no electronics involved. Earth gives protection, quiet and unmatched insulating qualities, it shields the house and it costs almost nothing to maintain.
- Old underground houses in Iceland
- A 4,000-year-old underground city in China
- A Mandan dwelling, North Dakota
- 3,000-year-old underground houses in Utah and California
- The underground dwellings of Coober Pedy
The Talpa House concept
Our founder, Martin, had the idea of building houses underground while studying at university in Australia, after reading a book on the subject. He could never quite let it go, and set about finding ways to perfect the concept with today's technology.
Modern, environmentally sound materials such as recycled watertight concrete, rubber root protection and insulation made from glass have allowed us to remove the shortcomings of historic underground houses while keeping every one of their advantages.
We have also refined the water cycle, which begins on the roof. Rainwater and irrigation water is first filtered through the earth on the roof and runs into a natural reed-bed treatment system, where 99 % of the impurities are removed from it together with the waste water from the house. It is then suitable for watering the roof again, and the cycle starts over.
Socrates' ideal house layout: the megaron
Our houses draw on the layout Socrates described in the 5th century BC: a house that takes the most from nature and uses the least.
A sloping ceiling to spread the light more evenly. A southern orientation to make use of solar energy and keep the interior well lit. A covered terrace that gives shade in summer, when the sun is high, and lets the lower winter sun through to warm the interior.
Windows on the north side make poor energy sense, so he kept that side as small as possible, with the smallest possible windows. We went a step further and left out the north windows altogether. On the south side we maximised the windows, the most favourable ones in energy terms, to bring in plenty of light and an optimal heat gain. By improving on Socrates' concept we have drawn the greatest possible energy efficiency from nature, with no need for heat-recovery ventilation or air conditioning.
Read more about the layout of the Socratic house here
The first Talpa House
Back home from his studies in Australia, Martin was so taken with the idea of building a house underground that he decided to build one for his own family. He drew up the project himself, calculated the structure and, two years later in 2011, completed his first underground house in Rohožník. People came from other countries to see it, journalists took an interest, and the first orders began to arrive.
Today
Since 2010 our team has built 26 underground houses in several European countries. In that time we have perfected both the construction and the systems inside our houses. Our aim is to build sustainable, honest, ecological houses with a service life of more than 100 years.