Earthship Biotecture
January 22, 2008 by Jennifer Chait
Filed under Home & Living
Yesterday I mentioned the new Earthship Coffee Table Book that’s coming out soon. Then I noted we should look at some. Frankly, we don’t look at near enough earthship structures here. Not only are they earth-friendly, but some are very unique.
Earthship Biotecture is a company in Taos, NM. They specialize in, what else, earthships. We’re going to look at them, because one they contacted me; plus, while I don’t have personal experience with them, I heard great things about them when I lived in New Mexico. Their complete company description is, “A global company offering proven, totally sustainable designs, construction drawings & details, products, educational materials, lectures / presentations, consultation & guidance toward getting people in sustainable housing.”
In case you need a quick primer on earthships, here’s Earthship Biotecture’s definition:
“Earthship: passive solar home made of natural and recycled materials 2. thermal mass construction for temperature stabilization. 3. renewable energy & integrated water systems make the Earthship an off-grid home with little to no utility bills.
Biotecture: the profession of designing buildings and environments with consideration for their sustainability. 2. A combination of biology and architecture.”
I’ll show you some of this company’s work and then later do one more post with some other earthships. Not only does Earthship Biotecture build structures they offer educational workshops. This is one way to get your own earthship built more quickly; obviously it gives you a heads up on how to complete a project better. I know people who have gone it alone and people who have built with workshops, (both straw bale and glass heavy earthships) and the folks who have gone through a workshop always seem to do better.
These seminars / educational workshops the team stages a demonstration room for local builder replication, that also provides the fundamentals of the concepts behind earthship structures.
This is from the Phoenix Earthship.
The next three photos are from Earthship Biotecture’s recent Nicaragua Earthship Demo, and are good examples of an earthship in process – lots of nice old tires and glass – about to become a new structure!
Besides consulting and demonstrations you can check out Earthship Biotecture for:
Earthship rentals – get the feeling for life in one, before you build. Or you know, just get away. Taos is a great place to get away to, if you’ve never been.
Learn about earthships function – i.e where you can get water and electricity.
Find earthship books and videos.
Plus you can take a look at all their great photos of demonstrations – really slick building processes. Most with dozens of photos.
Didn’t the NM site of the Earthships get shut down by local authorities? Code violations and all that?
I think the owners and builders were locked in serious bureocratic entanglements. What a pity!
Really, I never heard that. When I lived there I knew folks who said they rocked. Of course I also don’t agree with most of the people behind housing codes. We had trouble installing a composting toilet even – due to codes and regs. Their website appears to show that they’re still at the Taos location though. Hmmm. Maybe someone will come from the company and say something – I’ll look it up though too. Still, like I said codes are sometimes irrelevant and useless when it comes to eco-standards.
Great to read your take on Earthships and the logic behind off the grid green living. We’ve just hosted Mike Reynolds from Earthship Biotecture here in Nicaragua where we are building the first Earthship in Nicaragua. We are keeping a day to day construction blog. We’re currently on Day 26 of what we hope will be the start of a green movement in nicaragua real estate. The project is being run hand in hand with the local community of Carizal just south of the fishing town of San Juan del Sur on Nicaragua’s pacific coast. We are planning some tours later this year – hand in hand with the team from Earthship Biotecture and the local communinty – where people can get involved with building an Earthship here in Nicaragua.