I am now done with the earthship biotecture academy course in taos, nm.. it was an incredible experience and I met some friends that I'll keep for a lifetime! Because I really didn't go into details about earthships in my previous post, I'll take the time to do so now...
Current-day earthships have developed over trial and error of many different designs over the last 45 years... Reynolds, the founder of the organization, began by essentially living in a shelter made out of old beer cans and a tarp after graduating from architect school. He felt (and still feels) that the architecture profession fails to recognize and make use of the abundant amount of materials that we throw into our landfills everyday.
The first concept that earthships are presently based on is the use of recyclable and reusable materials. The homes use old tires, aluminum cans, glass bottles, old cardboard boxes, plastic bags, old washer/dryer/refrigerators doors, and anything reusable from demolished or torn down buildings... both the cans and the bottles are used to form a honeycomb matrix design in the walls of the home. The cardboard boxes can be used for liners in the tires as well as insulation (especially in developing countries). Plastic must be used to line the bottom "course" (row) of tires to keep the rammed earth dry from any moisture from the ground. Old scraps of metal can be used in roofing design.
The second concept that the earthship addresses is thermal heating and cooling using passive solar energy. When building in the northern hemisphere, the home is going to have windows facing to the south to maximize sunlight that can enter the house. Because the back wall is made of inflated, earth-rammed tires that are 200 - 300 lbs once packed, the storing capacity of heat after a day of sunlight is amazing. The earths temperature is about 58 degrees below freezing lines. The idea is to keep the home at about 70 degrees so raising the temp just 12 degrees can keep the home at a comfortable setting. The design and orientation of this building will certainly depend on where it is being built. For example, if one had the desire to build where there were long harsh winters, a short summer and not much daylight, for example, in the northern most provinces of canada, it would be recommended to put two greenhouses on the south facing side of the home. When it comes to temperature control, it is about layering, mass and insulation. So, in a warmer, moist climate, say Nicaragua, it will be essential to incorporate cooling tubes into the design that will be buried in berms and then have a vent in the ceiling of the structure. With convection, heat will naturally rise and want to escape the house, pulling air through the corrugated metal tubes. It is important that these corrugated tubes are metal (much like a tiling tube you would see on a farm in iowa) because metal is conductive and will cool the air as it travels through the berm before reaching the house and with a 10 inch diameter and extending 20 - 30 ft out of the home. In moist climates, it is important to perforate the tubes as well so that water from condensation doesn't end up effecting the quality of air due to the build of mold or potential rusting of the tubes over time. In a climate like Iowa's, it would be important to incorporate both the cooling tubes and a greenhouse for temperature control.
The third exciting principle that drives the design of earthships is rain water catchment and harvesting. This is the concept that initially attracted me to the homes because of my interest in the future of water and its finite availability. In the latest model of the earthship, the global, rain water catchment is quite simple. There are propanel sheets that are slightly pitched to the north with cisterns that store the water on the bermed side of the home. The cisterns can vary in size and quantity, but need to be able to be buried. The water is filtered twice via silt and sand traps with gravel and then once again inside of the cistern by putting the hole 4 - 6 inches above the bottom of the tank. Once the water enters the home, it goes to the Water Organizing Module. This component consists of a few different filters, a pump, a pressure control, and is connected to a pressure pump in another part of the home. Water is used a few different times throughout the home before exiting the house.
This brings me to the fourth principle - food production. Once water is used by the showers and sinks (except kitchen) in the house, the water is hooked up to a grey water planting system that allows food to be planted within the home. This system filters the water that has already been used once to bathe, and then uses water for the second time by the roots of food bearing plants. The third use is then on one of the pumps at the end of the planting bed that sends the filtered water to the toilet. Once this water is flushed, it heads to a septic tank outside of the home and eventually an evapotranspiration bed. The plants planted in this bed can serve as a windbreak or if the bed is oriented correctly, even a yard in the desert can have the potential to be beautifully landscaped and fully nourished.
The fifth concept is energy harvesting via photovoltaic panels (solar), wind or hydro. Depending on site location and microclimate, different forms of energy can be captured and stored. In Taos, we learned about solar because the amount of sun hours it gets per day. They are also exploring with wind. With solar panels, the harvested energy is stored in car batteries and then distributed throughout the house with both AC and DC electricity. Direct Current electricity is what type of energy the panels themselves harvest. In order to have Alternate Current electric devices, one must invest in an inverter. Although I feel that my understanding of the installation of the electrical system is my weakest understanding of all the earthship components, it is good to know that technical knowledge like this is easily accessible and can be found within a few google searches or a local electrician.
The last component of these dynamic homes is an on site sewage treatment system. Because you are off the grid, you are not hooked into power chords or plumbing lines. This requires you to be in charge of responsibly disposing of your own human waste. As mentioned earlier, once the toilet is flushed, waste travels to a septic system. The septic essentially has two chambers, one for liquids and another for solids. Anaerobic bacteria break down the solids and then the liquid side can fill. Once, this level hits its overflow, the liquid can move along into an ET bed. Depending on how often toilets are being flushed, a home owner may decide to put in another ET bed, or simply go straight into a leech field.
So there you have it.... a very brief overview of what systems are involved with earthships and biotecture design. Again, I am extremely happy that I did the course and I can see many positive things coming from this experience! I must say that I am looking forward to doing projects like these outside of the US just as much as anything that could potentially get off the ground here in the states. Here, there are so many codes and regulations and precedents set that trying out a new system or something as radical as this type of project is next to impossible in the majority of places. The idea of using a sledge hammer to ram a tire full of earth as a building brick is considered "too labor intensive" because it could be done more efficiently with a machine or a manufactured item. What is forgotten is that by putting time and energy and care into anything you do, especially with a group of people with a common goal, a place with character evolves and ownership of an idea or home or anything is developed. Not to mention the desperate need for physical activity let alone physical labor this country could use.
In regards to health, this experience really opened my eyes to issues related to food. Eating locally and food from heirloom seeds is something I now believe is critical to our health. I think I learned just as much from friends passionate about their food consumption habits as I did from the organic food lectures. The taste, the nutritional value, and care put into eating organic food has an energy that doesn't exist by getting food that was sprayed with chemicals, harvested by a machine and put into a can after doused in preservatives.
In nature, the word "waste" does not exist. It is something that we as human beings have invented and we are disgusted at the thought of having people deal with their own waste. Maybe this mindset goes back in time to when we began to live in closer proximities to one another and cities began to develop but it is my believe that the technologies that have now been developed make this such a simple concept. Learning about what is going on all over the world when it comes to solid waste treatment is a joke. My peace corps recruiter served in FIJI and his project was based on developing a way to get people not to put their solid waste in the same bays that they harvested fish from. In the Galapagos Islands, shit is essentially collected at the top of the hill and sent down a shoot directly into a pristine bay. The same thing is happening in Ushuaia, Argentina. If people dealt with their waste on a local level and used plants to mitigate this problem in greenhouses or other planting beds, it is my belief that our global water quality would greatly improve.
The CURVE BALL....
SO... I had originally planned on driving from Taos to Lethbridge last weekend in order to help earthship biotecture complete a build for a client. He is a wealthy older man that has made much of his money by coincidentally owning land that had some oil under it... I did the course in taos so that I could focus on a humanitarian effort in Nicaragua and help those who actually need it. Although I understand that earthship biotecture is a business and having wealthy clients is essential for leading humanitarian trips, I decided it is not my obligation to provide free labor just for the experience when what I am focused on is third world development.
It just so happened that a great friend and undergraduate roommate moved to boulder colorado this last week... he will be here alone until next month so I have decided to explore boulder with him and look for some work to help out with a portion of rent and experience a new place. I am hoping to get some hours at an organic farm just outside of Boulder that is involved with the local farmers market, but I am also looking for any type of temporary job working for a landscaping firm. I have been here just shy of a week now and replied to close to 30 craigslist ads so we'll see if any of them can get back to me.. fingers crossed...
Here are some photos recapping the last few weeks of the earthship biotecture academy and the most incredible rafting trip I have been on thus far in my life - class 4!!!
