Sounds like the movie of the year to me.

Garbage Warrior:

• Released in Canada cinemas starting February 15th.
• USA TV premier on Sundance Channel – April 1st 2008

Post from: Blisstree

Garbage Warrior: A Film by Oliver Hodge

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.

Post from: Blisstree

Earthship Biotecture

The New Earthship Coffee Table Book: Part I by Michael Reynolds, looks great. I’m not the biggest fan of coffee table books in general, however, this book looks worthwhile, and earthships are one of my favorite types of structures. But I digress, back to the book. It appears that part I is going to cover earthships from 1969 – 1993, while part 2 will catch up to present day. No word yet, on the second book’s release date, but this first part is available in March. You can pre-order now.

Here are some publicity shots from the book.

I’ll look around and see which earthship homes we’ve had here at Offbeat. Then see what I can find that’s new. If you like earthships, I’d take a look at this book.

Post from: Blisstree

Earthship Coffee Table Book