Check out our Earthsip playlist with lots of fascinating stories of people building and living in them:    • Earthships  

Earthships are one of the more beautiful, ambitious and labour-intensive types of alternative homes that we’ve seen people build. The goal with an Earthship is that the home would be completely self-sufficient in terms of its inputs and outputs. The concept and design came from Michael Reynolds, who is an architect in New Mexico.

They’re built using waste products like old tires, bottles and pop cans, and natural materials like dirt to minimize the need for new materials. And they’re designed to be heated and cooled using passive solar, to collect rainwater from the roof, to generate electricity from solar and wind, to grow food in indoor gardens, and to treat waste water on site. They’re incredibly impressive spaces and earthships have been built all over the world.

The waste materials used to build Earthships can be quite inexpensive, but the real expense comes in the form of land and especially labour, because they can take months and even years to build. We’ve seen a mix of “official” earthships that were built using plans from Michael Reynolds, and we’ve also seen DIY versions where people come up with their own designs. It does seem like it’s quite important to get the details right to ensure that the systems function the way they’re supposed to, so it’s probably worth it to purchase plans. And to make sure that the design is appropriate for the climate where it will be built, an energy modeler can help figure this out!

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Music Credit: Exploring Alternatives

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#earthship #passivehouse #greenbuilding #energyefficient