This underground house in Tempe, Arizona, was built in 1976, when the owner, Rick Hondorp, graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in space design. For $500, he bought a 25-by-150-foot plot of land that sits 30 feet from the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad. His intention was to create an architectural structure that both incorporated and was hidden by landscape. Though he financed the initial stage of building with a $25,000 bank loan, a loan from his grandfather and an NEA design grant worth $4,000, he did most of the construction himself. It took a year to build the first building out of cinderblock, which is sandblasted on the inside and outside for texture. On the exterior, the scalloped design of the roof lets light in. The second building is a single-story living unit connected to the first by a large courtyard, and a third building functions as a studio space that Rick now lives in. The front door to the back studio space is a seven-foot-square pivot door with a five-foot-square piece of glass, an idea Rick borrowed from famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. A spiral staircase leads down into a small living space. He describes the interior decor as contemporary-industrial, and he's softened the atmosphere by covering several walls with black commercial carpet, which also deadens sound. The one-story middle building is rented to tenants, who are surprised at the amount of natural light inside. All the buildings have air conditioners and massive walls, which keeps them cool. Rick explains that the inside temperature is always several months behind the outside temperature because it takes time for the ground to absorb the air temperature.
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