An Earthship is a trademarked building type introduced in
the 1970’s and designed by architect Michael “Mike” Reynolds through his firm
Earthship Biotecture (previously known as Solar Survival Architecture). Because
of the worldwide dissemination of the concept since, the term Earthship…
generally accepted as meaning something to the effect of “underground house
with a solar wall”… has become part of the common lexicon. It is as synonymous
with calling a drink that is sparkly, sweet, and caramel colored a “coke” even
if it is not the original Coca Cola product. We are going to use the common
parlance in this book, and use the term Earthship to refer to any building
built on the methodology, even if it is a modified version of the original trademarked
design.
In principle, Earthships:
- Use recycled waste tires, glass bottles, and cans along with natural materials and concrete to construct a structure that is intended to have minimal impact on the environment.
- Make their own water using the roof’s gutter system to direct rain and snow to cisterns where it is stored. Then a gravity-fed Water Organizing Module filters, pressurizes, and pumps the stored water to sinks, showers, bath faucets, and sometimes to solar thermal hot water heaters.
- After the filtered rain water is used once, it is directed to rubber-lined greywater planters to be filtered and aerated. A pump panel at the end of the planter moves the water to the toilet tank for flushing. The blackwater from the toilet goes outside to a septic tank, and possibly a blackwater planter which cleans the effluent before delivering it to a septic field.
- Produce their own heat and cooling, through using a combination of passive solar design, natural ventilation, a photovoltaic solar array, a wind turbine, and/or a gas generator.
- Produces food via a “food forest” and “salad bar” grown in the indoor greywater planters.
An Earthship’s exterior walls are typically constructed of used tires filled with dirt to provide thermal mass “cooling and heating”. Interior walls are
constructed of a honeycomb of empty aluminum drink cans or glass bottles set in concrete. Earthships are artistically
beautiful and the houses appear to rise out of the earth as if by natural
commandment.
However, there is a disconnect between how the Earthships
are intended to work and how they actually work. Around the world, groups and
forums discuss the design’s many issues. In order to identify patterns within
the issues, in early 2014, we started case studying Earthship builds around the
world as well as here at home in New Mexico. We catalogued the issues and
resolutions that expert builders and other researchers were finding. We studied
the data collected from Earthship builds in 15 countries and visited 20 sites
in the US… from the smallest tiny house Earthship to some of the largest and
most palatial Earthships in the world. We read commentaries from builds,
builders, and systems; digging ever deeper into the data - what research has been done? If not on this wall system,
what do people know about the materials? What are the pros and cons? What is
the embodied energy? We designed surveys and
conducted interviews of owners, builders, and renters to find out what issues
they were having and how they solved them. We started collecting weather data to see what tweaks make the homes work
well in what climates.
Then we branched out, finding scientific research and data to support both sides of every
debate, conducting more interviews… we started collecting enough data to start
to identify patterns in what techniques worked where and why. That the
Earthships have some issues is an established fact. What was not fully
established are the reasons or patterns that explained why. We analyzed the
data and tried to figure out what it did, and maybe did not, say. Academic
research is especially difficult to digest, so in as much as we were able, we
translated that into plain English. We also found some places in the Earthship
website and literature that were confusing, and we attempted to explain more of
what was happening there.
Our next goal was to document what design tweaks worked for
people, and pair those tips and tricks with some solid design advice so that we
could empower readers to design a space that meets their physical needs of food, shelter, and water; fiscal
needs of value, budget, and schedule; and psycho-emotional needs of a space
that supports you in becoming who you dream of being.
Then, we kept going, cultivating the list of “people to
watch” in Earthships in particular and Natural Building in general. We checked
out the websites, blogs, research, forums, and Facebook fan
pages of the foremost experts in their fields. Some were professional designers
and contractors and some were hobbyists who had learned by doing. We paid
careful attention to their advice and problem solving tips, and then dug into
the next level of data… the comments… sometimes hundreds, even thousands, from
invested readers who were sharing their own stories of triumph over common
issues raised. Too hot, too cold, just right - what they did and how they did
it - we wrote it down.
Then, after reading Earthship Volumes 1-3, we
realized that what people really needed was help a) deciding what systems
worked for their climate and values, and b) learning how to utilize them.
Finally, we consulted experts - architects, engineers, landscape architects, and researchers - to help us offer
better clarifications and more useful design tools.
It is our goal to supplement the standard Earthship
literature with helpful principles of design that can help elevate the
Earthship ideal into its next generation, and hopefully help to make the
process as painless as possible for would-be builders along the way.
