Our Future Underground
City planners and architects interested in creating more space are increasingly looking beneath their feet for
the solution. Towards the south of Nevşehir province in central Turkey once lay the ancient city of Derinkuyu. At its
peak, 20,000 people lived there. From its beginning in the 8th century BC, it became a thriving community with wine
and oil presses, stables and chapels as well as livestock. All of this would be unremarkable, expect for one thing – the
entire city was built underground. In places, it extends 60m below the surface. Even more surprisingly, Derinkuyu was
not the only underground city in this part of Turkey. It is linked to another, Kaymaklı, by a tunnel that’s 8km long. In
fact, there were over 30 underground cities in what was once the Cappadocia region alone. These underground
communities were occupied by several civilizations and became a place of refuge for early Christians in the years
before Christianity became an accepted religion.
Back in the 21st century, a growing band of visionary engineers and architects are once more looking
underground. But this time overcrowding seems to be their motive. In addition to Amsterdam, which will start on a
£7.4bn underground city beneath its famous canals, complete with shopping, leisure, and parking facilities, Singapore,
Toronto, and Frankfurt will also be enjoying major underground developments by 2025. Rather than just shopping
underground, Mexicans, surprisingly, could be living there earlier than its peers. A 65-storey ‘Earth-Scraper’ proposed
for Mexico City would drop some 300m below the city’s main square. The upturned pyramid, created by Bunker
Arquitectura, would have a 10-storey glass core, sending light into the 10 storeys of homes, 10 of shops, and 35 of
offices below.
Even if you don’t have attacking Romans to worry about, living beneath the Earth’s surface has distinct
advantages. “If you look at phenomena such as natural disasters, where would you rather be: on the 50 th floor of a
high-rise, or underground?” says Prof Samuel Ariaratnam, an engineer at Arizona State University. And if conditions on
the surface take a turn for the worse due to climate change, then a shield of meters of earth and rock could well
become more desirable than a balcony with a city view. Ariaratnam admits that the immediate cost of building down
is higher than building up: “I don’t think I’ll see reverse skyscrapers in my lifetime,” he says. But in the longer term,
safe from the exposure to the elements, the advantages start to emerge and below ground is, he suggests, the way to
go in many places. “Look at hot, humid climates, or very cold climates. Who wants to be outside?”
Even parks could one day be found deep down. Mirrors and fibre optics could bring natural daylight to
underground parks. ‘Sunbeamers’ –reflective tubes – would play a key part in this, channeling huge shafts of natural
sunlight from above. A full-scale prototype has trialed some of these light-capturing innovations, which should allow
grass, bushes, and even trees to flourish far from the surface. Existing underground developments have shown how
phenomena we associate with the surface can be brought below ground. At Standford Underground Research Facility
– a laboratory complex in South Dakota that has level from 90m down to nearly 2,500m – architects worked with in-
house psychologists to make the environment as pleasant as possible. Screens show blue skies and ventilation systems
create noticeable air flows to mimic the breezes above ground.
The engineering challenges involved in building cities beneath the surface vary depending on the depth of the
city. Dr Paul Younger, University of Glasgow, points out that the first few tens of meters below the Earth’s surface
tend to have the same average temperatures as those found at the surface. So any deep-dwellers in the UK and other
similarly chilly countries would need year-round heating to cope with an average 10°C temperature. Digging deeper,
temperatures increase and, depending on location, at a depth of around 500m a positively mild 25°C may be found.
But this comes at a price. In many locations the water table is just 10 or so meters deep. Keeping the water out, and
clean air for breathing in, will require constant pumping. Applying brute force to dig out a space and continual power
to keep it livable is also expensive. Clearly the bigger the underground community, the bigger the headaches. Nuclear
energy could provide the power. But there would still be big issues with waste treatment and disposal. “Large
communities living underground, independent of the surface, would be very hard to realize,” says Dr Sterling, an
expert on underground space. “It’s easier to consider either certain functions located underground interacting with
other surface facilities, or certain communities moving underground and being able to exist independently of outside
resources for limited periods.”
[Link]
İngilizce öğrenmek ile sınav geçmek arasında fark vardır.
Materyal kullanım hakkı Test Atölyesi’ne aittir. Yazılı izin olmadan kısmen ya da tamamen kullanılamaz.
1. The text is mainly about ----.
a. different communities living underground
b. the evolution of underground construction techniques over time
c. the risks involved in building subterranean cities
d. the possible benefits and challenges of constructing underground living areas
2. According to paragraph 1, the most striking aspect of the Cappadocia Region was that ----.
a. a high civilization which was ahead of its time was established in the region
b. the communities living there were highly skilled at farming, production, and raising animals
c. it had a kind of network of cities which were built under the ground
d. it was a holy area visited by Christians before their religion spread to other regions
3. The word refuge in paragraph 1 could best be replaced by ----.
a. safety b. fighting c. torture d. competition
4. Which of the following statements CANNOT be inferred from paragraph 2?
a. Engineers and architects cannot work in hard conditions, so they prefer to avoid projects for big crowds.
b. Unlike Amsterdam and Singapore, Mexico has already built underground buildings for housing.
c. The building designed for Mexico City will look like a reverse pyramid.
d. Bunker Arquitectura’s 10-storey main construction made of glass will lighten 55 storeys of the building.
5. The word mimic in paragraph 4 could best be replaced by ----.
a. lessen b. reverse c. imitate d. influence
6. According to the text, which of the following is NOT mentioned as a disadvantage about underground cities?
a. the cost of constructions
b. exposure to the conditions on the surface
c. constant pumping for removing water and providing fresh air
d. dealing with waste treatment and disposal
7. Which of the following statements is CORRECT according to the text?
a. Prof Samuel Ariaratnam does not believe that reverse skyscrapers are a potential solution for escaping adverse
climatic conditions.
b. It hasn’t been tested yet whether new technologies like “sunbeamers” will work in order to enable plants to grow
underneath the surface.
c. The depth of an underground city is not very influential in affecting the technologies used or the cost to a great
extent.
d. Dr Sterling does not think that an underground city can survive on its own without support from the surface.
8. The word those in the last paragraph refers to ----.
a. engineering challenges
b. the depths of the city
c. the first few tens of metros
d. the average temperatures
KEY: 1d 2c 3a 4a 5c 6b 7d 8d
[Link]
İngilizce öğrenmek ile sınav geçmek arasında fark vardır.
Materyal kullanım hakkı Test Atölyesi’ne aittir. Yazılı izin olmadan kısmen ya da tamamen kullanılamaz.