The excavation continues
The excavation of the first layer of 2.5 mts is almost complete. 
The excavation begins!
Excavation begins!
Finally, the South West monsoons have receded and we have begun with the excavation! It’s very sad to see some of our old trees go. But we’ve actually designed the building to minimize the damage. Off course we’ll replant as many as we have to cut down. Some young coconut trees are also being relocated to our farm in Rivona.
Earthscrapers
Found an interesting article on TreeHugger – “Earthscrapers: Is Going Down Instead Of Up A Greener Way To Build?”. I guess this would work if there was an available crater to start with. If you don’t, what do you do with all the mud/rock that you have to excavate? Wouldn’t that just increase the embodied energy of the structure? On the flip side, here’s another use for unused mines (if they are close enough to the city off course).