A house inside the hill

The English language is very specific about the difference between “house” and “home” – that is “house” is the building and “home” is the place where you live, where you feel secure. Well, from the most ancient times people have looked for places for their homes. They started in caves, then they evolved to houses above the ground and now they reach for the sky in the amazing sky-scrapers.

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But there is one person who thinks that going back to our origins is perfect for a home. This is the house designer Christian Muller who designed and then helped to build an original house that is almost entirely inside a hill. It is very unusual , indeed, but if you come to think of it there are a lot of

advantages for its positioning.

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First of all it does not lose any energy through the walls, but on the contrary, all the energy is saved here, as it is surrounded by the hill from all the sides and this way protected from low temperatures, so it requires minimum heating. Then it is positioned so as to use the sun light for as long as possible in order to avoid too much electrical consumption, being this way a rather “green ” home.

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Some people might find it odd, but I find it really interesting and unique. The house is situated in the Swiss village of Vals and is cut into a mountain slope. It was a project that was finished first and after that it was made famous all over the world by the pictures taken by the photographer Iwan Baan who published them in the most prestigious magazines that are connected to this kind of home architecture.