For almost two decades, landscaper Andy Brokmeyer rode his bike past “The Hobbitat” near Asheville’s Montford neighborhood. Craning his neck to see beyond the lot’s mature trees, he marveled at the unconventional home built into the hillside. Its distinct, slanting roofline and bunker-like, south-facing side were the only parts visible from the street. What is beneath that roof? he wondered.

In March 2020, Andy was delighted to find out that the home was for sale, and he immediately called his closest friends, Andrew and Emmye Cahn. Growing up together in New Mexico, Andy and Andrew had always admired Taos’s off-the-grid earth shelters, or “earthships,” that utilized passive solar technology and wind power. In 2003, Andrew married Emmye, a UNC Asheville graduate who’d studied environmental biology and ecology, and the three kindred spirits joined forces to buy and renovate rental houses, slowly breathing new life into old Asheville homes.

Owner Emmye Cahn used her knowledge of sustainable design to add interior elements that complement Remington’s original vision for The Hobbitat. photograph by Tim Robison

Now, presented with the opportunity to buy and restore Asheville’s own earth shelter, Andy recalls that “there was no convincing any of us that we wouldn’t buy the house.”

Plus, the timing was perfect. Emmye and Andrew, whose education and jobs had taken them and their two middle-school-age children to Seattle, needed an Asheville landing pad — a place to call home when they came back for annual extended visits.

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Today, as Andy, Andrew, and Emmye gather around the kitchen table in what is now their own modernized earth shelter, conversation often turns to Lloyd Remington, the UNC Asheville chemistry professor who built the approximately 1,800-square-foot Hobbitat in 1977 during the Cold War.

Sustainability was Remington’s main goal. By building his home underground, he could guard against the wind chill and climate extremes.

Lloyd Remington Photography courtesy of the university archives, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, UNC Asheville 28804

In the attic space, which Andy first spotted years ago from the street, a six-foot passive solar feature runs from the home’s west to east ends. “Inside that tube, the air is being warmed,” Andy explains. Once it reaches a certain temperature, the warm air circulates throughout the house. “Or, on a summer day, you can turn on a fan to blow the heat out.”

Remington cut no corners. He built his home to stand the test of time. Looking up at the ceiling from the kitchen table, Andy points out the precast mass of steel-reinforced concrete, 4 feet wide by 40 feet long. “It was probably laid in here with a crane, similar to a parking deck with multiple levels,” Andy says, “like Lego blocks fitting together.”

Remington, who’d taught a survival course as part of the Civil Defense program, also figured that his new home’s underground thermal protection would provide shelter in case of a nuclear crisis.

“Remington [installed] steel doors with no windows, expanded mesh webbing, and gates two feet out,” Andy says. “From a world’s-falling-apart perspective, he was ready for everything.”

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But from a warmth-and-welcoming perspective, the home needed work. Emmye remembers the first time she walked through. “It felt like a church kitchen from back in the ’80s with all the vinyl flooring and panel cabinetry.”

To modernize and add warmth to the home’s interior, the trio started with the kitchen and living rooms, which were then separated by a half wall. Emmye had the idea to replace the wall with a kitchen island and dining room table. “[Those features] created an epicenter,” she says, “and that started to delineate intimate zones for living.”

Next, they removed the bunker-like iron fixtures that separated the living room from the courtyard and replaced them with sliding glass doors that open to Andy’s landscaping. “Across the street, every day, dozens of people walk the UNC Asheville walking trails,” he says. “I wanted to plant things like rhododendron and oaks that would complement the forest.”

A solar roof feature fills the home with natural light while simultaneously heating and cooling the space.  photograph by Tim Robison

He also built stone walls and pathways throughout the property that define the lot itself and create intimate spaces for conversation.

In the living room and the primary bedroom, walls of windows make Emmye and Andrew feel like they’re communing with nature. “Looking out toward the south, there’s a soft light cascading in from the solar attic, and you have a beautiful view of the lot’s mature trees,” Andrew says.

Emmye likes to slide open the living room doors to hear the birds as she sips her morning coffee. “This house proves that you can be conscientious about your [environmental] footprint while having something that is quality-built,” she says. “It’s stood the test of time, and it feels good that we were able to give it new life.”