Redesigning the Groundfridge underground cellar
Designing a nature-inspired, user-centred, passive thermal system
I.A. de Bree (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
S.M. Persaud – Mentor (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
C.P.J.M. Kroon – Mentor (TU Delft - Industrial Design Engineering)
Oep Schilling – Mentor
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Abstract
Long before refrigeration existed, people used the earth to store their food and keep it cool. The Groundfridge revives this principle: a prefabricated underground root cellar designed for off-grid living and passive food storage. It relies on the stable temperature of the surrounding soil to passively cool its contents, but exposure to atmospheric conditions causes internal temperatures to fluctuate during warmer periods.
This graduation project explores how the Groundfridge can become an integrated system by reconnecting the product, its user, and nature. It investigates how conductive, convective, and radiative heat transfer can be optimised through redesign, while embedding user needs and sustainability. Rather than treating cooling as a purely technical challenge, the design seeks to make environmental processes visible, understandable, and meaningful to the user.
The Living Groundfridge represents two interventions: the Climate Gate, which increases thermal resistance, and the Groundflow system, which leverages evapotranspiration through a self-regulating water supply and vegetation plan to actively cool the Groundfridge hill. Together, they demonstrate that designing with nature, rather than against it, can create solutions that are thermally effective, ecologically beneficial, and meaningful in daily use.