Subterranean Hotel

Mark Dominic T. Terre

Philip Francis C. Sumaculub
Sherwin James Tumugdan
Roberto Belarmino, Jr.

Table of Contents
Chapter

Page
Abstract

INTRODUCTION OF THE STUDY

Background of the Study

Statement of the Problem

Significance of the Study

Delimitation of the Study

REVIEW OF RELATED LITIRATURE

Hotel

Types of Hotels

10

Unique Hotels

11

Solar Cells

14

Photovoltaic Hotel

15

Wind Mill

19

Wind Turbine

19

METHODOLOGY

21

Materials and Tools

22

Design of Scale model

23

THE PROPOSED PROJECT

24

Proposed Site

25

Description

26

Cost for Actual Construction

26

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

27

REFERENCES

28
2

Abstract

This project aimed to create a miniature of a hotel situated under the surface.
This subterranean hotel is a set of floors hosting private bathrooms and private patios
constructed from steel and concrete. The seven floors have been totally buried
underground only leaving the parking lot and the power reservoir visible in the surface.
This provides both insulations to the rooms and a minimization of the visual impact of
the hotel on the landscape. The deeper the floor, the more expensive it become.
Alternative source of energy is used, such as solar cell and wind turbine, making it ecofriendly.

Chapter 1

Introduction of the Study

Chapter One is divided into five parts: (1) Background of the Study; (2)
Statement of the Problem; (3) Significance of the Study; and (4) Delimitation of the
study.
Part One, Background of the Study, presents the rationale and the reasons why
the study is being conducted.
Part Two, Statement of the Problem, describes the general goal of the study and
specific to be answered.
Part Three, Significance of the Study, enumerates the different beneficiaries and
the corresponding benefits that can be derived from the study.
Part Four, Delimitation of the Study, identifies the scope and limitation
encountered during the actual construction of the miniature. It identifies the materials,
location and time used in the study.

Background of the Study

A hotel is an establishment that provides lodging paid on a short-term basis. The
provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a
cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with
modern facilities, including bathrooms and air conditioning or climate control. Additional
common features found in hotel rooms are a telephone, an alarm clock, a television, a
safe, a bar with snack foods and drinks, and facilities for making tea and coffee. Luxury
features

include

bathrobes

and

slippers,

a pillow

menu,

twin-sink

vanities,

and Jacuzzi bathtubs. Larger hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a
swimming pool, fitness centre, business centre, childcare, conference facilities and
social function services.
Underground hotels are an attractive alternative to traditional hotel for some
people, especially those who are looking to minimize negative impact on the
environment. Besides the novelty of living underground, some of the advantages of
underground structures include resistance to severe weather, an exceptionally quiet
living space, an unobtrusive presence in the surrounding landscape, and a nearly
constant interior temperature due to the natural insulating properties of the surrounding
earth. The greatest draw for most, however, is the energy efficiency and environmental
friendliness of such structures. Because of the stable subsurface temperature of the
Earth, heating and cooling costs are often much lower in an underground house than in
a comparable above-ground house.

When combined with solar design, it is possible to eliminate energy bills entirely.
Initial building costs are also often exceptionally low, as underground building is largely
subtractive rather than additive, and because the natural materials displaced by the
construction can be recycled as building materials.

Statement of the Problem

This aimed to construct a miniature of subterranean hotel.
Specifically, this study sought to answer to this question?
1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the structure?

Significance of the Study

This study will be beneficial to the following?
Hotel Owners. This study can give them new way in improving their business.
This can also help them in saving lot amount of money because this structure has its
own power source.
Civil Engineers. This study will give them new ideas and design. They can
conduct future studies about the structure and possibly improve it for future generations.

Delimitation of the Study

This study aimed to construct a miniature of subterranean hotel. This study also
determines the advantages and disadvantages of the subterranean hotel. It further aims
to determine impact of the subterranean hotel to our environment.
The materials that were in this study were illustration board, aluminium foil,
cartolina, felt paper, plywood, barbecue stick, toothpick, folder, and chip board. The
miniature was constructed at San Isidro, Jaro, Iloilo City. The researchers were limited
into constructing the miniature.

Chapter 2

Review of Related Literature

Chapter Two was divided into five parts: (1)Hotel; (2)Solar Cells; (3) Photovoltaic
Effect; (4) Windmill and Wind Turbines.
Part One, Hotel, describes about hotel and its type.
Part Two, Solar Cells, describes about solar cell.
Part Three, Photovoltaic Effects, defines photovoltaic effects.
Part Four, Windmill and Wind Turbines, describes windmill and wind turbines.

Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides lodging paid on a short-term basis. The
provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a
cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with
modern facilities, including bathrooms and air conditioning or climate control. Additional
common features found in hotel rooms are a telephone, an alarm clock, a television, a
safe, a bar with snack foods and drinks, and facilities for making tea and coffee. Luxury
features

include

bathrobes

and

slippers,

a pillow

menu,

twin-sink

vanities,

and Jacuzzi bathtubs. Larger hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as a
swimming pool, fitness centre, business centre, childcare, conference facilities and
social function services.
Hotel rooms are usually numbered (or named in some smaller hotels and B&Bs) to
allow guests to identify their room. Some hotels offer meals as part of a room and board
arrangement. In the United Kingdom, a hotel is required by law to serve food and drinks
to all guests within certain stated hours. In Japan, capsule hotels provide a minimized
amount of room space and shared facilities.

Types of Hotels
Hotel operations vary in size, function, and cost. Most hotels and major hospitality
companies that operate hotels have set widely accepted industry standards to classify
hotel types. General categories include the following;

Conference and resort hotels often contain full-sized luxury facilities with full service
accommodations and amenities.

Examples

may

include: Conrad

Hotels, InterContinental

Hotels, Ritz-

Carlton, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Dorchester Collection, JW Marriott

Hotels, Starwood Westin Hotels, Hilton, Marriott, and Hyatt

Historic Inns and boutique hotels often contain luxury facilities of varying size in
unique or intimate settings with full service accommodations.

Select Service

Examples may include: Holiday Inn, Courtyard by Marriott and Hilton Garden Inn

Limited Service

Examples may include: Hampton Inn, aloft, Holiday Inn Express, Fairfield
Inn, Four Points by Sheraton, and Days Inn

Extended Stay

Examples

may

include: Staybridge

Suites, Homewood

Suites

by

Hilton, Residence Inn by Marriott, element, and Extended Stay Hotels

Timeshare

Examples

may

include: Hilton

Grand

Vacations, Marriott

Vacation

Club

International, Westgate Resorts, Starwood Vacation Ownership, and Disney

Vacation Club

Destination Club

Botels floating hotels.

10

Some unique hotels:

Tree house Hotels
Some hotels are built with living trees as structural elements, for example the Treehotel
near Pite, Sweden, the Costa Rica Tree House in the Gandoca-Manzanillo Wildlife
Refuge, Costa Rica; the Treetops Hotel in Aberdare National Park, Kenya; the Ariau
Towers near Manaus, Brazil, on the Rio Negro in theAmazon; and Bayram's Tree
Houses in Olympos, Turkey.
Straw bale Hotels
In Nax Mont-Noble, a little ski resort situated on 1300 metres in the Swiss Alps,
construction for the Maya Guesthouse started in October 2011. It will be the first hotel in
Europe built entirely with straw bales. Due to the insulation values of the walls it will
need no heating.
Bunker Hotels
The Null

Stern

Hotel in Teufen, Appenzellerland, Switzerland and

the

Concrete

Mushrooms in Albania are former nuclear bunkers transformed into hotels.

Cave Hotels
The Cuevas Pedro Antonio de Alarcn (named after the author) in Guadix, Spain, as
well as several hotels in Cappadocia, Turkey, are notable for being built into
natural cave formations, some with rooms underground. The Desert Cave Hotel
in Coober Pedy, South Australia is built into the remains of anopal mine.
Capsule hotels

11

Capsule hotels are a type of economical hotel that are found in Japan, where people
sleep in stacks of rectangular containers.
Igloo, Ice and Snow hotels
The Ice Hotel in Jukkasjrvi, Sweden, and the Hotel de Glace in Duschenay, Canada,
melt every spring and are rebuilt each winter; the Mammut Snow Hotel in Finland is
located within the walls of the Kemi snow castle; and the Lainio Snow Hotel is part of a
snow village near Ylls, Finland.
Garden Hotels
Garden hotels, famous for their gardens before they became hotels, include Gravetye
Manor, the home of garden designer William Robinson, andCliveden, designed
by Charles Barry with a rose garden by Geoffrey Jellicoe.
Underwater Hotels
Some hotels have accommodation underwater, such as Utter Inn in Lake Mlaren,
Sweden. Hydropolis, project cancelled 2004 in Dubai, would have had suites on the
bottom

of

the Persian

Gulf,

and Jules'

Undersea

Lodge in Key

Largo, Florida requires scuba diving to access its rooms.

Railway Hotels
Frequently, expanding railway companies built grand hotels at their termini, such as
the Midland Hotel, Manchester next to the former Manchester Central Station, and in
London the ones above St Pancras railway station and Charing Cross railway station.
London also has the Chiltern Court Hotelabove Baker Street tube station; there are

12

also Canada's grand railway hotels. They are or were mostly, but not exclusively, used
by those travelling by rail.
Subterranean Hotels
Hotels that is located underground. It can be partially submerged or totally submerged.
Green Roofed London Hotel
This five star hotel is going underground. Designed by ReardonSmith
Architects for a proposed development at Hersham Golf Club in Surrey, London, this
new subterranean hotel will pay its ultimate respects to Londons Green Belt by placing
all 200+ guest rooms underneath it! The entire scheme is covered with a plush green
roof that takes its cue from the surrounding countryside.
Subhus Norwegian Hotel
Part of the Stokkya Sea Center in Norway, this amazing hotel has been built
partially submerged into the hillside to minimize the structure's visual and environmental
impact on the coastal area. Designed by Oslo-based Pir II Arkitektkontor, and owned
and operated by Tori Langklopp and Roar Svenning, the SubHus is a twelve room
bunker-inspired hotel featuring uniquely decorated rooms, furnished with thrift store and
antique finds and highlighted with stunning views of the beach settled below

13

Solar Cell
Solar cells are a semiconductor devised to convert light to electric current. It is a
specially constructed diode, usually made of silicon crystal. When light strikes the
exposed active surface, it knocks electrons loose from their sites in crystal. Some of the
electrons have sufficient energy to cross the diode junction and having done so, cannot
return to positions on the other sides of the junctions without passing through an
external circuit. Since the current obtained from these devices is small and the voltage
is low, they must be connected in large series-parallel arrays (solar panel) if useful
amounts of energy are to be converted (Reference, 2011).
Solar cells are used to generate using the sun, which is a renewable source of
energy, in place of using non-eco-friendly methods like burning fossil fuel. The
increasing use of solar cell technology to produce energy gives a clear indication of the
increasing awareness about the declining level of fossil fuel and their impact on the
environment. Today, the electricity produced through solar technology is being used to
power homes, hotels, cars and appliances. This has made solar technology to be one of
the most important advances in technology in recent times (Solarcell, 2011).
The amount of power generated by solar cells is determined by the amount of
light falling on them, which is in turn determined by the weather and time of day. In the
majority oof cases some of form of energy storage will be necessary. In a Gridconnected system, the solar array is connected to the mains. Any surplus power is sold
to the electricity company, and power is bought back from them when it is needed. In a
Stand-alne system, however, this is not possible. In this type the usual choice for

14

energy storage is the lead-acid battery. The number and type of batteries is dependent
on the amount of energy storage needed (Solar-power-answers, 2011).
Modern solar cells are based on the semiconductor physics. They are basically
just P-N junction photodiodes with a very large light-sensitive area. The photovoltaic
effect, which causes the cell to convert light directly into electrical energy, occurs in the
energy-conversion layers (Encyclobemia.Solarbotics, 2011).
Today more homeowners and business owners are realizing the economic and
environmental benefits of using solar cell technology to their advantage. In addition, this
has given a strong impetus to the fast improvements being made in this industry. Just a
few years have seen solar power technology emerging as a high priority on the list of
both homeowners and business-owners. With the dramatic increase in the of
conventional electricity and the creeping factor of unreliability and shortage of supply,
solar cell technology has offered the ideal solution to all these problems. There is no
doubt that solar energy is the power source of the future, but how fast one embrace it
into mans life determines the amount of saving of man and environment would be
making (Solarcell, 2011)
Photovoltaic Effects
The photovoltaic effect is the creation of voltage or electric current in a material
upon exposure to light. Though the photovoltaic effect is directly related to
the photoelectric effect, they are different processes. When the sunlight or any other
light is incident upon a material surface, the electrons present in the valence band of the
metallic atom absorbs energy and, being excited, jump to the conduction band and
15

become free. Now these free electrons are attracted by a positively charged electrode
and thus the circuit completes and the light energy is converted into electric energy. In
the photoelectric effect, electrons are ejected from a material's surface upon exposure
to radiation. The photovoltaic effect differs in that electrons are transferred between
different bands from the valence to conduction bands within the material), resulting in
the build-up of voltage between two electrodes (Wikipedia, 2012).
The collection of light-generated carriers does not by itself give rise to power
generation. In order to generate power, a voltage must be generated as well as a
current. Voltage is generated in a solar cell by a process known as the "photovoltaic
effect". The collection of light-generated carriers by the p-n junction causes a movement
of electrons to the n-type side and holes to the p-type side of the junction. Under short
circuit conditions, there is no build-up of charge, as the carriers exit the device as lightgenerated current.
However, if the light-generated carriers are prevented from leaving the solar cell,
then the collection of light-generated carriers causes an increase in the number of
electrons on the n-type side of the p-n junction and a similar increase in holes in the ptype material. This separation of charge creates an electric field at the junction which is
in opposition to that already existing at the junction, thereby reducing the net electric
field. Since the electric field represents a barrier to the flow of the forward bias diffusion
current, the reduction of the electric field increases the diffusion current. A new
equilibrium is reached in which a voltage exists across the p-n junction. The current
from the solar cell is the difference between IL and the forward bias current. Under open
circuit conditions, the forward bias of the junction increases to a point where the light16

generated current is exactly balanced by the forward bias diffusion current, and the net
current is zero. The voltage required to cause these two currents to balance is called
the "open-circuit voltage". The following animation shows the carrier flows at shortcircuit and open-circuit conditions (Pveducation, 2010).
The photovoltaic effect was first recognized in 1839 by French physicist Antoine
Cesar Becquerel. However, it was not until 1883 that the first solar cell was built, by
Charles Fritts, who coated the semiconductor selenium with an extremely thin layer of
gold to form the junctions. The device was only around 1% efficient. Russell Ohl
patented the modern solar cell in 1946 (Light sensitive device). Sven Ason Berglund
had a prior patent concerning methods of increasing the capacity of photosensitive
cells. The modern age of solar power technology arrived in 1954 when Bell
Laboratories, experimenting with semiconductors, accidentally found that silicon doped
with certain impurities was very sensitive to light (Reference, 2011).
The photovoltaic effect in a solar cell can be illustrated with an analogy to a child
at a slide. Initially, both electrons and the child are in their respective ground state.
Next, the electron is lifted up to its excited state by consuming energy received from the
incoming light, just as child is lifted up to an excited state at the top of the slide by
consuming chemical energy available in the excited state that can be expended. In the
absence of junction-forming materials. There is no incentive for excited, free to move
along a specific direction: eventually fall back to the ground state.
On the other hand, whenever two different materials are placed in contact, an
electric field is generated along the contact, This is the so-called built-in field , and it
exerts a force on free electrons, effectively tilting the electron states and forcing the
17

excited free

electrons into an external electrical load where their excess energy can

be dissipated. The external load can be a simple resistor, or it can be any of a myriad
of electrical or electronic devices ranging from motors to radios. Correspondingly, the
child moves to the slide because of his desire for excitement. It is on the slide that the
child dissipates his excess energy. Finally when the excess energy is expended, both
electron and the child are back in the ground state, where they can begin the whole
process over again. The motion of the electron, like that of the child, is in one direction.
In short, the photovoltaic effect produces a direct current-one that flows constantly in
only a single direction (Britannica, 2011).
The photoelectric effect was first noted by a French physicist, Edmund Bequerel,
in 1839, who found that certain materials would produce small amounts of electric
current when exposed to light. In 1905, Albert Einstein described the nature of light and
the photoelectric effect on which photovoltaic technology is based, for which he later
won a Nobel prize in physics. The first photovoltaic module was built by Bell
Laboratories in 1954. It was billed as a solar battery and was mostly just a curiosity as it
was too expensive to gain widespread use. In the 1960s, the space industry began to
make the first serious use of the technology to provide power aboard spacecraft.
Through the space programs, the technology advanced, its reliability was established,
and the cost began to decline. During the energy crisis in the 1970s, photovoltaic
technology gained recognition as a source of power for non-space applications
(Science, 2011).
The energy photon is transferred to an electron in an atom of the semiconductor
device. With its newfound energy, the electron is able escape from its normal position
18

associated with a single atom in the semiconductor to become part of the current in an
electrical circuit. Special electrical properties of the PV cell a built-in electric provide the
voltage needed to drive the current through an external load (Photovoltaic, 2011).

Windmill
A windmill is a machine that converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by
means of vanes called sails. Originally, windmills were developed for milling grain for
food production. In the course of history, the windmill machinery was adapted to many
other industrial uses. An important non-milling use is to pump water, either for land
drainage or to extract groundwater.
Wind Turbine
A wind turbine is a windmill-like structure specifically developed to generate
electricity. They can be seen as the next step in the developments of the windmill. The
first wind turbines were built by the end of the 19th century by Prof James
Blyth in Scotland (1887), Charles F. Brush in Cleveland, Ohio (18871888) and Poul la
Courin Denmark (1890s). La Cour's mill from 1896 later became the local powerplant of
the village Askov. By 1908, 72 wind-driven electric generators were in Denmark,
ranging from 5 to 25 kW. By the 1930s, windmills were widely used to generate
electricity on farms in the United States where distribution systems had not yet been
installed, built by companies such as Jacobs Wind, Wincharger, Miller Airlite, Universal
Aeroelectric, Paris-Dunn, Airline, and Winpower, and by the Dunlite Corporation for
similar locations in Australia.
19

Forerunners of modern horizontal-axis utility-scale wind generators were the

WIME-3D in service in Balaklava USSR from 1931 until 1942, a 100-kW generator on a
30-m (100-ft) tower, the Smith-Putnam wind turbine built in 1941 on the mountain
known as Grandpa's Knob in Castleton, Vermont, USA of 1.25 MW and the NASA wind
turbines developed from 1974 through the mid-1980s. The development of these 13
experimental wind turbines pioneered many of the wind turbine designs technologies in
use today, including: steel tube towers, variable-speed generators, composite blade
materials, and partial-span pitch control, as well as aerodynamic, structural, and
acoustic engineering design capabilities. The modern wind power industry began in
1979 with the serial production of wind turbines by Danish manufacturers
Kuriant, Vestas, Nordtank, and Bonus. These early turbines were small by today's
standards, with capacities of 2030 kW each. Since then, they have increased greatly in
size, with the Enercon E-126 capable of delivering up to 7 MW, while wind turbine
production has expanded to many countries.
As the 21st century began, rising concerns over energy security, global warming, and
eventual fossil fuel depletion led to an expansion of interest in all available forms
of renewable energy. Worldwide, many thousands of wind turbines are now operating,
with a total nameplate capacity of 194,400 MW (Wikipedia, 2012).

20

Chapter 3
Methodology
Chapter Three is made up of two parts. (1) Materials and Tools and (2) Design of
the Scale Model
Part One, Materials and Tools, enumerates the quantity, specification and costs
of the material and tools used during the construction of the scale model.
Part Two, Design of the Scale Model, presents the design of the scale model.

21

Materials and Tools

Quantity

Unit

Item/Description

pcs

Illustration Board

25.00

100.00

rolls

Cartolina

7.00

35.00

pack

Barbeque Stick

26.00

26.00

meters

Aluminium Foil

5.00

40.00

pcs

Chip Board

14.00

20.00

pack

Toothpick

10.00

10.00

rolls

Felt Paper

16.00

80.00

10

pcs

Folder

5.00

50.00

pc

Plywood

300.00

300.00

pcs

11 Wood

25.00

75.00

rolls

Double Sided Tape

67.25

134.50

pcs

Crepe Paper

9.00

36.00

roll

Plastic Cover

18.00

18.00

26

stick

Glue Stick

5.00

130.00

roll

Packing Tape

20.00

20.00

kilo

Nails

60.00

15.00

Total

Unit Price (Php) Total Cost (Php)

Php 1089.50

22

Design of the Scale Model

23

Chapter 4
The Proposed Project
Chapter Four is made up of two parts. (1) Proposed Site; (2) Description; and (3)
Cost for Actual Structure.
Part One, Proposed Site; place where the projected will be constructed
Part Two, Description, describes the actual project.
Part Three, Cost for Actual Structure, amount needed for construction of the
project.

24

Proposed Site

This project will be located at the Central Luzon.

25

Description
This subterranean hotel will have 7 set of floors hosting private bathrooms and
private patios constructed from steel and concrete. The seven floors have been totally
buried underground only leaving the parking lot and the power reservoir visible in the
surface. This provides both insulations to the rooms and a minimization of the visual
impact of the hotel on the landscape. The deeper the floor, the more expensive it
become. Alternative source of energy is used, such as solar cell and wind turbine,
making it eco-friendly.

Cost for Actual Construction

This project will cost from 100-200 billion pesos. The materials used in this
project should in high quality to ensure the safety of the costumers

26

Chapter 5
Conclusion and Recommendation
Advantages
The advantages of underground structures include resistance to severe weather,
an exceptionally quiet living space, an unobtrusive presence in the surrounding
landscape, and a nearly constant interior temperature due to the natural insulating
properties of the surrounding earth. The greatest draw for most, however, is the energy
efficiency and environmental friendliness of such structures. Because of the stable
subsurface temperature of the Earth, heating and cooling costs are often much lower in
an underground house than in a comparable above-ground house.
Disadvantages
Underground living does have certain disadvantages, such as the potential for
flooding, which in some cases may require special pumping systems to be installed.

27

REFERENCES
Hotel. (2013), Retrieved on February 2013 from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel
Underground Living. (2012), Retrieved on February 2013 from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_living
Solar Cell. (2005). Retrieved on February 2013 from:
http://www.solarcell.net.in/
Solar Cell. (2010). Retrieved on February 2013 from:
http://encyclobemia.solarbotics.net/articles/solar_cell.html
Solar Cell. (2011). Retrieved on February 2013 from:
http://www.reference.com/browse/solar_cell.html
Photovoltaic Effect. (2011). Retrieved on February 2013 from:
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/458271/photovoltaic-effect
Windmill.(2010). Retrieved on February 2013 from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windmill
Wind Turbine. (2010). Retrieved on February 2013 from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windturbine

28