Ok, now that that is clear, let's talk Earthships. I'm not talking about the X-files here, I'm talking about Sustainable Green Building designs. These are amazing. This weekend we finally got our one and only long weekend and I high-tailed it to New Mexico. I love New Mexico. My destination was Taos, and as I got a few miles from town, I kept seeing these bizarre little home tucked away in the dirt- literally. I'm not sure how to describe them- but they're pretty dang cool. I was happy to see one of these homes was actually a visitor's center where you can go inside and learn more about these very green dwellings.
You can see just from the pictures above that these homes really utilize green building practices. First there's the traditional adobe building technique- using the earth for your walls- sand, clay and straw. It doesn't really get more sustainable and earth friendly than that. Then there's recycling, or the use of trash that would otherwise sit in a landfill forever. Notice the tires- a major building block for these structures. You can also see the bottles, or the bottoms of the bottles- and you probably thought those were specifically decorative, pretty awesome huh! And then there's all the cans, lots of beer cans and coke cans, mostly beer though. I mean, this stuff is garbage to most of us, and you can literally build a home with it!
Besides using these materials for the building itself- these homes are completely self-reliant, they're off the grid completely. They generate their own electricity from wind and solar power. You'll see a few wind turbines and solar panels dotting the landscape. They also utilize rain and snow water for all needs- bathing, cooking, drinking etc. They catch the water on the roofs and funnel them into large cisterns. Then it goes into a water organizing module where it's filtered and sent through the pipes- regular plumbing as far as you'll know. Personally, the bathroom was my favorite room in this earthship- so cute!
There's also the very important factor of food. As taken from the website www.earthship.com "A fundamental concept of Earthships is that gray water from the sink or tub is recyled and purified by feeding into an indoor planter before being used to flush the toilet. This creates an environment in which plants are not only asthetic and contributing to the heath of our environment, but are also highly functional and play a direct role in the maintenance of the home." So, these homes are not only good for the environment, but very healthy for the inhabitants. They're completely self-reliable. I don't know about you but I think these are pretty awesome. And yes, I know that you think this makes me a hippie, but punks can be into sustainable living too!
This is an extremely brief overview of what an earthship entails. For more information please visit www.earthship.com
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ReplyDeleteWhenever I ski Taos, I've always wanted to stop at this place on the way back home, but its usually dark.
A good reference on passive solar is David Wrights book ... it was required reading when I was in earning my Arch/HP degree in the mid 80's.
Later,
David
ps. see you on campus this fall?