I built this project with my step-daughter as a way to have a little Hobbit House hide-out for both of us and as a way to encourage her amazing talent as a designer. we first mocked it up in paper mache and did a lot of drawings together. We hope to do a phase two that will be more fully buried and will have more of a kitchen than just a coffee maker, sink and ice bucket. It sits on the top of a bluff overlooking the upper end of a pre civil war grist mill dam. Low-voltage landscape lighting illuminates the path from the house to the structure and on to the river below with a landing and a collection of kayaks and canoes. The structure is 3/8" steel re-bar and expanded wire lathing with layers of fiberglass reinforced concrete, stucco, asphalt and more fiber reinforced concrete all about 2" thick with a final cap of elasto-meric paint. The big oval window is Lexan Polycarbonate glazing held in place with rope lacing intended to encourage the growth of vines. The door is a steel frame with copper cladding and an old porthole for glazing with salvaged brass insect screening. Both window and door have eyebrow gutters around them to divert water away from the opening. The coffee maker sits on a copper counter top with a sink made from an old stainless steel mixing bowl and some 3/8" brass pipe fittings. It does have running water, electricity and an electric heater/fan. No phone or WiFi though.
I didn't want to have a light switch so I used a touch-dimmer connected to a copper tray just inside the door that controls a small length of rope-light in the ventilating chimney. Touching the tray with any part of your body switches the light from off to dim to medium to bright. The futon sofa folds out into a full size bed and conceals enough room behind for a pack and various food and drink supplies.