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How we built a colony house that can disappear underground
Recently we came across an article where scientists and engineers wanted to build houses that can disappear underground with the press of a button to protect them from fire. We immediately liked the idea. Not because of fire. Where we live fire is not really big risk. But still we thought it would be good for our colony to have a kind of hiding spot in case of a huge snow storm or in case of a seal attack. So we went with our idea to Penguin Waddle and Uncle Jayden, the two big inventors and builders in our colony. They immediately saw the usefulness of our idea and also convinced everyone else. So it didn't take long and we started building.
After some brainstorming we decided to build a new community center that could then dive into the snow like a submarine. We have houses that look very much like human houses but we also have igloo type housing and the community center was built to look like an igloo.
Now humans would probably build a house that can go underground with heavy steel and hydraulics. But that was not how we built it.
Under our igloo floor, we built a hollow chamber made of thick ice. We filled this chamber with crushed seashells we collected from the ocean.
The actual igloo was built in three layers (like a cake) For the outer shell, the sled-hull, we carved the igloo into a pointed, wedge shape (like a shark fin) on the bottom instead of using round dome blocks. We smoothed the outside with water so it became slick ice. This lets it slide down through the snow easily.
Next we needed a middle layer as our air gap. We left a handspan of empty space between the outer shell and the inner room and filled this gap with loose, fluffy snow. Why? Because fluffy snow is the best insulator. It keeps our body heat inside, so we don’t freeze while hiding.
Finally we built the inner room - our cozy den. We carved a round room just big enough for the penguins of our colony, a pile of fish-cookies and our lucky pebble and game collection. The floor is a grating of frozen fish bones, so any melting water drips down into the shell tank below.
Now to get the house to dive underneath we decided after some discussion to not use an electric button. Sure, if we use it for a seal attack there would still be electricity but in case of a huge snowstorm the power might be out so we wanted to be on the safe side.
So our button is actually a foot-pedal made of a frozen kelp spring. When one of us clicks it with our flipper, it releases a wooden peg that holds a giant ballast tank.
When we click the button, the peg pulls out and a trapdoor opens underneath the igloo. Seawater floods into the shell chamber. This shell seawater is heavier than snow, so the whole igloo suddenly gets heavy and sinks straight down into the soft snowpack, like a stone into mud. To make it go back up, we just need to kick a second pedal that pumps the water out using a simple bellows made of seal-skin.
Next we also needed some air shafts. After all we might need to spend several hours there. Therefore we built some kind of periscope snorkels. We took two thin tubes made of rolled-up seal-skin, stiffened with frozen whale-baleen (like a straw) and let them go from the ceiling of our igloo, straight up through the snow, and pop out above ground like two little chimneys.
To avoid snow from blocking them we put a little windmill-spinner on top of each tube. Even a tiny breeze makes the spinner turn, which gently scrapes snow away from the opening.
To make sure stale air goes out and fresh air comes in, we don't use fans as they are too noisy. Instead, we have a little oven there, a pot and lots of fish. So we can cook fish soup and then place a bucket of warm fish-soup under the outgoing tube. The warm soup makes the air rise and sucks stale breath out. Fresh, cold air is then naturally pulled down the incoming tube. No electricity needed, just soup-power! Our oven can be powered with wood or a generator or with whatever we have at hand.
Now in case of a snow storm our igloo only sinks down 1m (3 feet) below the surface. The snow above us acts like a heavy blanket — the wind howls overhead, but inside it's hopefully silent and warm. The air-tubes have little ice-flaps that close automatically if the wind gets too strong, so no snow blows in.
If there is a seal attack our igloo sinks all the way down to 3 meters (10 feet) where the snow is packed hard as rock. Seals can't dig that deep and they can't see the air-tubes because we will camouflage them with loose snow. Plus our igloo has a tiny ice-window facing the ocean side, so we can watch the seals swim away.
If necessary we can store more fish in our igloo so that we could stay there longer than the seals could stay and wait for us to come out.
To make our igloo even safer we added a "False Floor". Now if a seal somehow digs down from above, it will fall into the empty air-gap layer (the fluffy snow) while we are safe in the inner room. Then we can just click the "up" button and pop back out on the other side of the seal!
Now we have an igloo that is part submarine, part sled and part soup-powered air machine. We are very proud that with Penguin Waddle and Uncle Jayden's help we could built an igloo that makes our colony better and safer.
By the way here is the link to the article that gave us the idea:
https://newatlas.com/architecture/hibertec-homes-underground-wildfires-tornadoes
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