Humans have always lived in caves, and this ancient form of housing has a future. The cave dwellings in Guadix, Spain, prove it.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00As the many chimneys suggest, these are no ordinary hills.
00:06These cave houses are in Guadix, southern Spain.
00:10For Mari Carmen, the cave's constant temperature of around 20 degrees Celsius is just right.
00:16She's proud of her climate-friendly home.
00:22This is the kitchen.
00:24And here, come with me.
00:28Here we have a bedroom, the master bedroom.
00:32It's a good place to sleep, cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
00:38The caves have a very big future.
00:44Central heating?
00:45No need.
00:46And that's despite the rather chilly winters here.
00:49A blessing for Mari Carmen and the 4,500 cave dwellers of Guadix.
00:58Some people think it's a hole, the kind you might find a bear in.
01:02In the past, the caves were just painted white.
01:05There was no water, no electricity.
01:07Today we have everything, thank God.
01:14It was the Moors who first dug out the clay hills, over 500 years ago.
01:20Today the caves are a highly revered cultural asset.
01:27And an inexpensive housing option.
01:29Jorge Herrero grew up in a cave house himself.
01:33Today he digs entirely new caves and extends existing ones.
01:39The caves are cheaper and consume much less energy.
01:45There's no need for air conditioning or heating.
01:49Caves are the essence of nature.
01:51They're unique.
01:57For Jorge, there is no home more sustainable.
02:00Walls and ceilings alike, all is provided by nature herself.
02:04Almost everything he removes is recycled.
02:09We simply dig a hole in the ground.
02:12That's why it's cheaper than building a house.
02:14We don't need a roof.
02:16The hill is the roof.
02:17In everything we excavate, in our case clay, we turn into tiles or bricks.
02:23This cave will have tiled floor made from the very material we dug out here.
02:33The underground homes are increasingly popular, and they come in all sizes.
02:38Juan Calandria is an architect.
02:45He and the cave dweller Rafael Medina want to promote this ecological and economical form of housing.
02:54In future, caves will become more attractive,
02:59as they have a direct impact on the fight against climate change.
03:07There is no concrete here, no steel beams, no energy-intensive materials are used at all.
03:17This was once a small cave, but we extended it bit by bit to 250 square meters.
03:26Very few cave dwellings have property deeds.
03:30In fact, living underground is often not regulated at all.
03:34But the region of Andalusia wants to change this, paving the way for the whole continent.
03:42It can be transferred to other regions.
03:44After all, in Europe there are many like this, with sedimentary rock.
03:53Underground homes can be built wherever ground conditions allow.
03:57Homes like that of Mari Carmen, who has lived in caves from an early age.
04:05My whole life, I was born in a cave, and after I got married, we moved into this one.
04:12I wouldn't swap a cave for a normal apartment, not for anything in the world.
04:19Mari Carmen and the cave dwellers of Guariques are leading exemplary, sustainable lives,
04:24in a form of housing as ancient as it is future-proof.