Earth to Earthships

A Blueprint for the Green Life

They say home is where the heart is, but let’s face it, from an environmental perspective, home is where the waste is. Indeed, there’s something terribly wrong with the way we build our homes, not to mention the types of homes in which we choose to live. The amount of resources and materials that go into building a typical single family home is truly mind-boggling. And this is overshadowed only by the amount of energy a typical home consumes over its lifetime. The typical North American detached single-family dwelling consumes roughly 10,656 kWh (kilowatt hour) of electricity annually.¹ With more than 107 million households in the United States alone, a total of 11.4x1011 kWh are consumed each year. Of that figure, approximately 42% goes to heating and cooling.²
It is a well-known fact that since the 1960s the average square footage of U.S. homes has steadily been increasing, thus increasing the amount of space, which needs to be heated and cooled. The ecological footprint of

the average American house is currently estimated at roughly 1.5 hectares per person.³ That’s a total American footprint of around 161 million hectares, which is approximately the size of Greenland!
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the conventional housing model is fundamentally flawed and unsustainable. Just like a patient on life support, virtually all houses are dependent on centralized municipal utilities. Without these lifelines, most homes would be rendered completely useless, yet the majority of the population finds itself living contently in poorly designed homes because they are the most widely available option.
“One can easily imagine the limitations, dependency, and vulnerability of being on life support in a hospital. What if you found out

that you had to stay on a life support system for the rest of your life? Many people would rather die than live this way. We are living this way.” - Michael Reynolds
Thankfully, as we move into the 21st century, more practical and ecologically sustainable options are becoming available. One option offers homes that interface harmoniously with the systems of the earth and allow us to work with nature instead of against it. This type of dwelling is capable of fueling itself and can also heat and cool itself. It’s capable of harvesting and recycling rain water, growing food year-round, and dealing with all its own waste, all while saving the homeowner time and money. It may sound like a dream, but rest assured, it is reality. Today, numerous individuals worldwide who are truly committed to the philosophy of green

Earth to Earthships

Issue 2 | October 2009

pg 31

living are abandoning conventional modes of housing for the most radically green alternative – the Earthship.
Invented in Taos, NM, by renegade architect Michael Reynolds, the Earthship is a low impact passive solar home, which doesn't rely on centralized municipal utilities. Thirty years ago, Reynolds realized that “the accepted concept of housing supported by massive centralized systems is not appropriate, safe, or reliable.”⁴ He understood that if we were going to be serious about drastically reducing global environmental devastation, we would need to evolve beyond our dependence on centralized systems. Thus, he began pioneering a whole new field of architecture, which he coined “Biotecture” – a synthesis of architecture and biology. Essentially, Biotecture is concerned with building homes which are in congruence with nature, interfacing with the existing systems of the planet instead of exploiting and defacing them. Much like an organism, the Earthship is in a symbiotic relationship with its environment. It is not separate from the earth, but rather in unison with it; harmoniously interconnected, its systems are highly in tune with the organic rhythms of the planet. It does this by adhering to six core principles of sustainable living: heating and cooling without fuel, power generation,

harvesting of water, on-site sewage treatment, in-home food production, and building with recycled materials.
In developing the Earthship, Michael Reynolds tackled the problem of how to heat and cool a home without a conventional heating and cooling system. The

solution was thermal mass, which (much like a battery) stores and releases heat energy. The living spaces in an Earthship are designed as a series of U-shaped rooms, surrounded on three sides by thermal mass in the form of used automobile tires, rammed with densely packed earth. To give you an idea of how densely the tires can be packed, consider that the average tire can store as much as three wheel barrels full of earth.

These U-shaped rooms are aligned towards angled windows along the entire southern face of the building. The windows allow a lot of sunlight to enter, which heats the massively dense walls. In the winter, when the temperature in the house drops below the temperature of the walls, heat is released from the walls and warms the living space to a comfortable room temperature. In the hot summer months, with the sun high in the sky, direct sunlight enters only the front of the home and doesn't heat the U-shaped rooms. Since the Earthship is partially built into the earth, the naturally cool temperature of the earth keeps the Earthship nice and comfortable. Most people are shocked to find out Earthships can maintain room temperature in both the scorching heat of the desert and in the penetrating chill of the winter, making them suitable for nearly every climate on earth. This shattering discovery is not only ecologically friendly, but economically friendly as well. It saves residents from rising heating and cooling costs, which regular homeowners know all too well.
In addition to saving money on heating and cooling, the Earthship’s power is generated by the sun and wind. Power is stored in a series of batteries and sent to a power-organizing module, which converts the energy

Earth to Earthships

Issue 2 | October 2009

pg 32

into conventional circuit breaker panels. The number of solar panels and windmills needed is up to the homeowner, but since all lighting and appliances in an Earthship are extremely energy efficient, a relatively small amount of power generation is required.
The next issue Reynolds faced was designing homes that could be completely independent from municipal water supplies. He realized that fresh water scarcity is a big issue for humanity. Only 2.53 percent of the planet’s water is fresh, two thirds of which is locked up in glaciers. The remainder is stored in lakes, rivers, aquifers and rainfall run-off. According to the World Water Development Report, in the worst-case scenario, by 2050, seven billion people in sixty countries will be faced with water scarcity.⁵ An Earthship directly addresses this issue by connecting to a direct and permanent source of fresh water – rainfall. The Earthship uses roof catchment systems to collect rainwater, which is then stored in a giant cistern outside of the house. Gravity pulls the water into the water-organizing module, which filters and pumps the water to a solar hot water heater mounted on the roof. The water is then distributed to where it is needed. Reynolds designed the Earthship to recycle its water four times, allowing it to harvest water adequately in countries that receive as little

as 7 inches of total annual precipitation.
All the harvested water is treated on site. Dirty water from sinks and showers travels through a particle filter into a series of rubber-lined planters, called “botanical cells.” The water is oxygenated by the roots of the plants and cleaned up enough to be used for toilet flushing. The black water from the toilet is then pumped to a conventional septic tank. After being recycled four times, the water is used to nourish plants grown outside.
In addition to the shortage of fresh water, humanity is faced with yet another obstacle to overcome: food scarcity. To address this looming issue, Reynolds realized that it is imperative for homeowners to be able to grow their own food; thus he designed the Earthship to double as a greenhouse. The

botanical cells running along the south facing windows receive ample sunlight for vegetation to grow throughout the year. Tropical plants such as bananas, kiwis, pineapples and avocados, just to name a few, will flourish indoors, even during the winter season. Some Earthships feature expanded food production capabilities, wherein one third of total square footage is dedicated to additional greenhouses and raising animals, ranging from chickens and ducks to goats and pigs. The goal is to produce enough food in one’s home to be self-sustaining.
Lastly, Reynolds concluded that a home shouldn't have to be built out of expensive and ecologically damaging materials. Instead, he looked towards what we obviously have in over-abundance, namely garbage! As the old

Earth to Earthships

Issue 2 | October 2009

pg 33

adage goes, “One person’s trash is another person’s treasure.” He designed the Earthship to be built using recycled materials such as used automobile tires, plastic and glass bottles, aluminum cans and reclaimed wood. Used tires may be the most abundant building material we have. In some rare cases, people get paid to take away large piles, but in most cases, old tires are simply given away in bulk because disposal is so difficult. Depending on the size and design, an Earthship can use between 500 and 5000 tires. Tires are filled with dirt and compacted in place. They are staggered like bricks, creating massive walls which are load bearing and wide enough to serve as their own foundation. Furthermore, the Earthship’s

tough and rugged design can withstand earthquakes, hurricanes, and seasonal flooding. To top it all off, they're virtually fireproof. The plastic and glass bottles, along with the cans, are used to fill in the gaps of the major walls, and then covered with mud or adobe. As a decorative touch, colorful glass bottles are embedded into the walls allowing light from outside to pour in, forming radiant, jewel-like patterns on the walls. There are no limits to how beautifully and creatively an Earthship can be built.
By following these core principles in sustainable housing design, Reynolds tapped into something incredibly powerful. However, Reynolds maintains he has only begun to scratch the surface of what's actually available. Being only thirty years old, the Earthship concept is still in its infancy. Reynolds admits it has a long way to go and encourages people to be creative when building. It's only through trial and error that we can make new discoveries and develop the Earthship to its fullest potential. Indeed, the Earthship design is the closest thing humanity has to a “Noah's Ark.” It's no

surprise that these independent vessels are rapidly being constructed all over the planet. Like a species awakening from a coma, people all over the globe are realizing the fallible nature of their poorly designed conventional dwellings and are now substituting them, along with their lifestyles, for a supreme green alternative.
To learn more about how to build your very own Earthship, please visit the Earthship Biotecture home page at www.earthship.net. To learn more about Michael Reynolds and his quest for sustainability, check out the film Garbage Warrior, which can be ordered at www.garbagewarrior.com. For a collection of Earthship related links, visit www.hubpages.com/hub/earthship.