PERFECT HOMES MAGAZINE - ISSUE 15 issue 15 | Page 166

What Lies Beneath The world’s population is growing at an alarming rate causing our cities to become increasingly overcrowded and congested. Throughout the 21st century developers and planners have managed to handle this expansion by building larger and taller skyscrapers that seem to reach high into the sky, blotting out the light and casting an eerie shadow on the ground below. W hile building upwards is the obvious choice for space-conscious urban development, would it be possible to take the opposite approach and dig downwards to find new space? Over the past few years we have witnessed the growing trend in ‘iceberg expansions’ where immense basement extensions have added to the property footprint increasing its size without affecting the buildings and gardens above. So could this 166 THE WORLDWIDE PROPERTY BIBLE - www.simplymedia-group.com concept be used to create a family home? YES, is the answer in fact, this environmentally-conscious living trend is pretty hot right now. While many of us associate underground living as dark and damp places akin to that of a war-type bunker they are in fact bright, airy, spacious houses that are really no different than any other home except for the obvious of being built into the earth.