RD House by VASHO
Buried into a hillside in Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic, is the RD House by architectural firm VASHO. Contemporary in design and sustainable in nature, the firm had to create a home that comfortable allows eighteen persons to fit comfortable within 500 metres squared. The buried aspect was more of a visual proposition (although also contirbutes to the sustainable aspects), removing the possible detraction the home could create upon the landscape, but also drawing the human eye to the heavenly view outwards.
The green roof of the property allows for insulation whilst the houses rear face is in contact with the rock of the hill, creating a cooling effect known as 'thermal inertia'. As a result, the hillside refuge does not need an air conditioning system, it manages to monitor itself. With energy saving in mind, the house also employs a Domotic system. Domotic is an intelligent system which allows control over the lighting, electrical outputs and security from anywhere inside, or indeed away from, the home.