FIVE YEARS AGO, underground architecture was virtually unheard of in this country, but three years later it had become well enough accepted to have made the cover of Popular Science. I've been following all this since 1964 when I first got involved in underground architecture. By now, everyone has seen or read enough about it to know that it is usually brighter, sunnier and drier than most conventional architecture. Terraculture seems to have arrived. My practice consists of four things: designing solar, earth-covered buildings for my own clients; designing such buildings for other architects; giving lectures; and selling books.

There's a shortage of people with underground know-how. There will soon be a wide demand for the service of:

* Soil experts who can interpret test-boring results with an eye to construction and groundwater problems;

* Waterproofing contractors able to deal knowledgeably with the scores of different systems available to meet various subgrade conditions;

* Insulation contractors versed in the ways various products are damaged by soils, roots, rodents and moisture;

* Rooftop-fill contractors able to place tons of soil on carefully insulated and waterproofed roof decks without causing any damage;

* Landscape architects and contractors experienced in the planting of rooftops and sideslopes;

* Site drainage specialists;

* Recast concrete technicians skilled in low-cost, factory made building parts for underground use;

* Pest control people; etc.

Underground construction isn't the only field that will need the new skills. Similar demands exist, or will soon exist, for people able to produce or service all the other emerging alternative technologies. There's opportunity galore for anyone resourceful enough to see it. Sep.-Oct., 1979