Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this thread. I couldn't decide if it should go here or in the "Living On Earth" forum. Move if necessary. Anyway, this technology has been around for a few decades. If any of you have heard of this or have been to one in real life, share you stories. I'd really like to know more. Ok so for those of you who have no idea what an Earthiship is... essentially it's the brainchild of a guy named Mike Reynolds in New Mexico. He’s built a community of environmentally friendly, autonomous, self-sustaining homes that are off the electrical grid (solar/wind powered w/ rain water & snow catch cisterns aided by thermal mass construction) and built with mostly recycled (free) tires which are littered in every corner of the globe waiting to be burned. Straw bales can also be used in place of tires. Earthships waste little water because they recycle it 4 times: first to drink, wash & shower… then this resulting “greywater” is filtered through the home garden/gravel cell where you can grow your own food and is then used for flushing toilets… the resulting “blackwater” then goes through an anaerobic process in a solar septic tank before being flushed onto your planting/landscaping cell for further treatment & plant growth. Mike claims that these can be built virtually anywhere in the world, with tuning required by some extreme climates. I just discovered this stuff a couple of weeks ago when researching autonomous building. I’m really interested. I’ve also made sure to read the criticisms too, which there are plenty of. But Mike claims that he’s perfected the technique with his decades of experience building these things all over the planet. He says that the cost to build one by his team is about the same as it is to build a traditional “stick” house but most of the time Earthships are cheaper (mainly because people will often pay for you to take used tires off their hands – the principle construction material for such a house) with the added advantage of no bills. But he can also build huge multi-million dollar Earthships apparently. Not that any of us in the hippy forums would care about one of those, lol! You can also read his books, buy some blueprints and build your own apparently. Anyway, I think this is a pretty good idea! What do you guys think? Check out the poll I posted on his forum concerning placing some of his designs in the public domain for the future of all biology on this planet. Wikipeda: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship Mike's site: http://earthship.net Books: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/104-5379777-4543936?initialSearch=1&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=earthship&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go
I have a friend who trained under Mike Reynolds. He was already a contractor, then he got into Earthships and rammed earth construction. Adobe is another amazing substance. I used to live in New Mexico. There are buildings there that are still standing after 200 years. Its just local dirt, but very fine. Pray you don't have to get in the stuff after a rain. Sticks to everything like peanut butter. x
Cool man, did your friend go on to build more? What did he think about the experience? I've really been giving some serious thought to doing the training program. It'd be sweet to build my own sustainable house and some for my friends too!
He's built 2 houses that I know of. Haven't seen him in a few years now. I spend a week helping him on a project in eastern Oregon. We mixed local earth in with cement powder, spayed it with water, turn the mix over a few times, then pack it into molds for the walls. This is the rammed earth style. Walls were about 18 inches thick. The construction costs aren't really that much cheaper than using standard materials. The savings comes from energy cost in heating and cooling. x
saw a show on that guy Mike Reynolds. Amazing creative person with the capacity to save the planet from anymore damage caused by humans. Love the idea and cant wait to play with his idea of a earthship home someday soon.
