Earthships

[yiolas]

Earthships are self sufficient homes built out of natural and recycled materials often using tires ,aluminum cans and dirt. They are oriented to take advantage of passive solar radiation to heating and cooling. The homes are designed to take advantage of natural resources. Rainwater is also stored in cisterns and gray water is recycled.

It's a very interesting concept for someone who has plot of land in the wilderness.

Have look.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=_ozX_nt5A4o

[Fredkc]

Michael Reynolds is worthy of a Nobel prize for this work, I think.

Earthships are an amazing achievement in themselves.

But when you look at the post-disaster volunteer work he and friends have done in Indonesia, and Haiti...

I gave my daughter and her husband Earthship Books I & II for Christmas last year.

If you want to see a pictorial tour of someone's home, built using this design, there's one here.




What an interesting interview the man would make, I think.

Fred

[yiolas]

"Self Sufficiency = Freedom" A quote from The Antimatter Radio Show by Jeffrey Grupp

Jeffrey Grupp show motto is "The show about everything" Jeff has a daily radio show where he talks about everything from spirituality,Illuminati, Nephylum, Parapsychology,Conspiracy, self sufficiency and more.
Listen to his program on 24/03/2010 where he interviews: Michael Reynolds of Earthship.net
( Self sufficient homes and the basic concept of being self sufficient) very interesting
http://antimatterradio.com/

[Jondalar]

"Garbage Warrior" was a major inspiration for me, with the added bonus of being full of humour and insight on how to deal with local bureaucrats. Since watching the film i've developed a habit of salvaging glass panels (especially sliding glass doors), maybe a bit obsessively... but will put it to good use before long. Plans for a greenhouse/bathhouse/sauna are in the works.

[Fredkc]

"Garbage Warrior" was a major inspiration for me,

Welcome Jondalar;
It was for me two. In fact I purchased the first two book on construction and gave them to my daughter and husband, for xmas last year.
Fred

[TWINNICK]

Posted by Jondalar (here)
"Garbage Warrior" was a major inspiration for me, with the added bonus of being full of humour and insight on how to deal with local bureaucrats. Since watching the film i've developed a habit of salvaging glass panels (especially sliding glass doors), maybe a bit obsessively... but will put it to good use before long. Plans for a greenhouse/bathhouse/sauna are in the works.

Haven't seen this but I recon you could make a really good solar hot water heater with those glass panels, sandwich black poly pipe between them or under one of them and pump water slowly through the hose and let the sun do the rest.

My nephew laid black poly pipe in a zigzag pattern all over his shed roof from the garden tap so he could set up a sink out there instead of completely getting his ass kicked by the missus when he cacked up the bathroom in the house LOL.

He would be covered in oil and grease from working on the go cart or cars and need to have a good scrub, it worked so well he told me he burned himself plenty of times LOL.

He had to run a separate hose from the garden tap into the sink for hot and cold water faucets.

.Nick..

[Bill Ryan]

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Kerry and I stayed in one a couple of years ago in Taos, NM. The overnight temperature fell to -5'F (-21'C). We used no additional heating. We were as warm as toast.

[9eagle9]

They are very pretty too, graceful looking. Certainly more unique in design and ambiance than what comes off the builder boards these days. Especially compared to mass produced stick built homes we see all over that appear to be some form of instant urban blight.

[Gajanana]

excellent! I have access to a very remote wooded area owned by a trusted friend. hope to build a shelter of some kind this year. This looks very interesting, the main problem is transporting materials as access is limited - We'll find a way though... thanks for the links.

[Lettherebelight]

This information is quoted from Simon's website...enjoy!

http://www.simondale.net/house

















You are looking at pictures of a house I built for our family in Wales. It was built by myself and my father in law with help from passers by and visiting friends. 4 months after starting we were moved in and cosy. I estimate 1000-1500 man hours and £3000 put in to this point. Not really so much in house buying terms (roughly £60/sq m excluding labour). The house was built with maximum regard for the environment and by reciprocation gives us a unique opportunity to live close to nature. Being your own (have a go) architect is a lot of fun and allows you to create and enjoy something which is part of yourself and the land rather than, at worst, a mass produced box designed for maximum profit and convenience of the construction industry. Building from natural materials does away with producers profits and the cocktail of carcinogenic poisons that fill most modern buildings.

Some key points of the design and construction:

• Dug into hillside for low visual impact and shelter
• Stone and mud from diggings used for retaining walls, foundations etc.
• Frame of oak thinnings (spare wood) from surrounding woodland
• Reciprocal roof rafters are structurally and aesthaetically fantastic and very easy to do
• Straw bales in floor, walls and roof for super-insulation and easy building
• Plastic sheet and mud/turf roof for low impact and ease
• Lime plaster on walls is breathable and low energy to manufacture (compared to cement)
• Reclaimed (scrap) wood for floors and fittings
• Anything you could possibly want is in a rubbish pile somewhere (windows, burner, plumbing, wiring...)
• Woodburner for heating - renewable and locally plentiful
• Flue goes through big stone/plaster lump to retain and slowly release heat
• Fridge is cooled by air coming underground through foundations
• Skylight in roof lets in natural feeling light
• Solar panels for lighting, music and computing
• Water by gravity from nearby spring
• Compost toilet
• Roof water collects in pond for garden etc.

Main tools used: chainsaw, hammer and 1 inch chisel, little else really. Oh and by the way I am not a builder or carpenter, my experience is only having a go at one similar house 2yrs before and a bit of mucking around in between. This kind of building is accessible to anyone. My main relevant skills were being able bodied, having self belief and perseverence and a mate or two to give a lift now and again.

This building is one part of a low-impact or permaculture approach to life. This sort of life is about living in harmony with both the natural world and ourselves, doing things simply and using appropriate levels of technology. These sort of low cost, natural buildings have a place not only in their own sustainability, but also in their potential to provide affordable housing which allows people access to land and the opportunity to lead more simple, sustainable lives. For example this house was made to house our family whilst we worked in the woodland surrounding the house doing ecological woodland management and setting up a forest garden, things that would have been impossible had we had to pay a regular rent or mortgage. To read more about why we did it and why this is an important option to meet the challenges of climate change and peak oil, click here.

Would you like to learn more about this sort of building and gain practical experience? Why not join us on another exciting building project. There will be opportunities for everyone of all abilities and areas of interest.

Click here for more details.

[Gone001]

This makes me think of Luke Skywalker's house on Tatooine lol.

[TWINNICK]

Those look like bottles inbeded into the walls of that first pictured house, reminds me of a bloke in the outback somewhere how built a house of totally whatever he could find.
The walls had so many bottles and bits of coloured glass in them with tyres and wooden crates and all sorts of things put into the concrete that the place was so insulated from the heat and cold of the desert because of all the air trapped in the bottles it was a confusing ramshakle feat of brilliance.

All the coloured glass lit the building up like a beautiful cathedral and the crates and tyres were used as practical things like shelving and storage, it was amazing to see what he had done, and he was always adding something new to the house like another room or sculpture or celler (basement).

..Nick..

[Lancelot]

I heard about an earthship in the desert which had its own eco- air con. Hot desert wind blew into a long underground tunnel lined with old car tyres. The tyres cooled the air as it passed through and into the living space! In cold climates, the tyres are used to build a wall facing the sun through a glass wall. During the day the tyres absorb the heat of the sun then at night, slowly emit the heat back out into the living space. Genius.

[christian]

I love the Earthships, maybe I'll build one myself one fine day.

Consider that as they are made of a lot of "artificial" ingredients, they fall apart in case of shifting to 4th dimension, that's what Drunvalo says...

[Autumn]

Gajanana, how interesting ... where is that? And if you need a brainstorming partner, seeing we're so close geographically, just PM me. I love projects like this and me and my family have designed an earthship. We're just more of the mentality that if one builds in the woods one only uses what the woods can provide - no mess of non decomposable material.

[Dennis Jonathan]

I love this idea.

If man has created materials that will never decompose, or will take thousands of years to, why not recycle them into shelter? Makes total sense. Its either, burn a sea of used tires and kill the planet, or make use of them.

The only downside I see is the cost involved. I understand the math, long term savings etc., but at a glance, a home to fit my family is just impossible to afford for me. I wouldnt mind building one, but I have no experience with any professional construction.

$1.5 million dollars for a 3 bedroom seems really costly to me.

[juliagulia55]

The more I see these Earthships, the stronger my desire is to build one...

[Davidallany]

Everything is owned by the government, there is no free land, one must buy the land first, then there is tax on the land after that.

[siggy]

Posted by juliagulia55 (here)
The more I see these Earthships, the stronger my desire is to build one...

The tyre filling is hard work. After doing a little as a volunteer I started to think more and more about timber frame / straw bale housing

[Mike Gorman]

Fantastic job, I'll be really hackneyed and say it reminds me of a Hobbit house..cause it does-love it.
Tell me if you do not mind, how did you acquire the land-was it expensive?
Cheers