Earthship
Earthships are designed to behave as passive solar earth shelters made of both natural and upcycled materials such as earth-packed tires.
Earthships may feature a variety of amenities and aesthetics, and are designed to withstand the extreme temperatures of a desert, managing to stay close to 70 °F (21 °C) regardless of outside weather conditions.
Reynolds developed the Earthship design after moving to New Mexico and completing his degree in architecture, intending them to be "off-the-grid-ready" houses, with minimal reliance on public utilities and fossil fuels.
[1] Earthship architecture began development in the 1970s, when the architect Michael Reynolds set out to create a home that would fulfill three criteria.
The roof as well as the north, east and west facing walls are heavily insulated to reduce heat loss.
The cisterns are positioned to gravity-feed a water organization module (WOM) that filters out bacteria and contaminants, making it suitable for drinking.
Before the greywater can be reused, it is channeled through a grease and particle filter/digester and into a 30–60 in (760–1,520 mm) deep rubber-lined botanical cell,[5] a miniature living machine, within the Earthship.
[6] Water from the low end of the botanical cell is directed through a peat moss filter and collected in a reservoir or well.
Earthships utilize anaerobic digestion in their septic tanks, which naturally separate solid waste.
Studies on the safety of growing food plants in a black water system show low levels of E. coli bacteria.
Photovoltaic panels and wind turbines on or near the Earthship generate DC electricity that is stored in deep-cycle batteries.
[citation needed] In an Earthship, a Power Organizing Module (POM) takes a proportion of stored energy from batteries and invert it for AC use.
In addition to the exterior tire walls, some Earthships are sunk into the earth to take advantage of earth-sheltering to reduce temperature fluctuations.
[7] Malcolm Wells, an architect and authority on earth-sheltered design, recommends an imperial R-value 10 insulation between deep soils and heated spaces.
Large front windows with integrated shades, trombe walls and other technologies such as skylights or Steve Baer's "Track Rack" solar trackers are used for heat regulation.
Earthships are positioned so that its principal wall, which is nonstructural and made mostly of glass sheets, faces directly toward the equator.
Some Earthships, especially those built in colder climates, use insulated shading on the solar-orientated wall to reduce heat loss during the night.
A 30 ft (9.1 m) pipe extends from the interior of the house under the berm, cooling the air by the time it gets to the comfort zone.
[10][11] The Earthship inspired experiment in South Africa is combined living quarters and the Sonskip / Aardskip open-air museum in Orania.
[17] Biotechure Planet Earth came back to collaborate on the Malawi project in 2015 in order to complete the community center for the rural village.
Finally, in a web post uploaded in February 2020, it was confirmed that the community structure in Kapita, Malawi could be finished.
While water, power module, solar panels and the team were on their way to Europe, the mayor of Boingt put his veto on the building permit.
Josephine Overeem, the woman who wanted to build the earthship, and Michael Reynolds decided to do a demonstration model in her back yard at her residence in Strombeek (Belgium).
In 2007, CLEVEL and Earthship Biotecture obtained planning permission to build on a development site overlooking the Brighton Marina in the UK.
The application followed a six-month feasibility study, orchestrated by Daren Howarth, Kevan Trott and Michael Reynolds and funded by the UK Environment Agency and the Energy Savings Trust.
The successful application was for sixteen one, two, and three-bedroom earthship homes on this site, expected to have a sale price of 250 - 400,000 pounds.
Since it is illegal to use tires in Belgium (for risk of leaking toxic metals like lead and zinc),[29] the project uses earthbags instead.
[31][32] The first successful construction of an Earthship in Germany (Tempelhof/Kreßberg, 2015/16) used fewer thermal bridges but increased insulation in cooperation with a Fraunhofer Institute to prevent any mould problems.
[34] The first Earthship in South America was built in January 2014 in the town of Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.
[38] The film Garbage Warrior is about Earthships and Reynolds' struggle with obtaining permits to build out of unconventional material and off the grid.
