this “underground house of the future” revisits ancient Chinese caves

Reconstruction of the “Dikengyuan” underground house.

This underground house of the future is located in Zhangbian City on the Loess Plateau of Henan Province, Chinawhere a team from the University of Hong Kong reimagined a centuries-old form of housing through traditional and modern construction methods — including large-scale 3D printing — along with community collaboration.

Designed by professors John Lin, Olivier Ottevaere and Lidia Ratoi, the project was constructed with student volunteers alongside local masons. Their work adapts the regional residence “dikengyuan”, an underground courtyard house excavated directly into loess soil. The project explores how this long-standing architectural system can respond to changing climate conditions while supporting social life in a rural village.

images courtesy of Olivier Ottevaere

Living Beneath the Rural Landscape

Throughout the Loess Plateau, families have long formed dwellings by digging rectangular courtyards about six meters into the ground. Rooms carved laterally from the earthen walls form a ring of vaulted chambers around an open space. The arrangement preserves the cultural significance of courtyard living while leaving the surrounding land surface available for agriculture.

The Underground House of the Future is based on this relationship between land and habitation. Even as concrete houses and factories appear above ground throughout the region, underground houses remain in seasonal use. The thermal mass of the earth maintains stable internal conditions through the heat of summer and the cold of winter.

the Underground House of the Future transforms a traditional residence in the dikengyuan courtyard

Climatic stress and need for adaptation

This balance has been challenged in recent years. Extreme rainfall in 2021 caused flooding across the region, overwhelming drainage systems that had served underground villages for generations. Walls collapsed and many houses were abandoned after the storms.

The Underground House of the Future came about through a collaboration between the Hong Kong team, the Mingde Project Foundation and the local authorities in Zhangbian Township. Early investigations found that a large part of the underground houses remained inhabited. The flood turned the issue from conservation to adaptation.

The project became an opportunity to test how this typology could evolve under new climatic conditions.

A central participant in this process was Mrs. Zhu, the owner of the residence selected for intervention. Through social media he documents daily life in underground houses, drawing attention to a community that receives little economic benefit from nearby tourist developments. Together with the design team, he proposed shifting the house from a private residence to a communal space for community gatherings.

a translucent retractable canopy filters sunlight throughout the courtyard gathering space

Courtyard as Amphitheater

At the heart of the Underground House of the Future is its courtyard. The design reshapes this central void into a tiered amphitheater that hosts weddings, funerals and village ceremonies. The seating terraces act as circulation paths while channeling rainwater to a newly designed drainage system.

The stepped surface was produced through robotic 3D printing on earth-based material, a technique tested with students during construction workshops. A perimeter drainage channel directs runoff to underground storage tanks for future reuse. Terraced planting areas absorb rainfall and support small-scale cultivation.

Above the courtyard, a light tensile canopy stretches between the surrounding walls. Designed by Ottevaere, the fabric structure filters sunlight while keeping the space open to the sky. The translucent surface gives alternating patterns throughout the tiered seat throughout the day. An opening in the canopy houses a newly planted tree, which was lowered into the courtyard by crane, restoring vegetation lost during previous floods and honoring local feng shui traditions that link underground homes to living trees.

the courtyard becomes a tiered auditorium for weddings, funerals and village gatherings

Dome, light and breezes

The rooms surrounding the courtyard maintain the logic of traditional cave dwellings while incorporating new structural techniques. The existing clay chambers were reinforced with brick domes made by local craftsmen. The builders fashioned these vaults using a simple guide: a curved bamboo branch tied with twine to anchor the arch.

Daylight and ventilation reach deeper into the rooms through skylights and back openings carved into the loess walls. These interventions transform the conditions inside the house, where light enters as narrow beams and reflective surfaces illuminate the earthen interiors. The experience of moving through the spaces gradually shifts from the shadowy passages to the amphitheater of the open courtyard.

Construction methods combined digital construction with vernacular building knowledge. Students conducted 3D scanning and robotic printing experiments, while local masons guided the construction of a brick dome. The process created jobs in the village and enhanced the skills already present in the community.

robotic 3D printing of terraced shapes and integrated drainage in the central courtyard