Earthship Academy - Week 2

Foundations of Earthship Construction

(Photo courtesy of Charmaine Jones)

Hello!! In this post, I'd like to share some know-how on Earthship construction that I've learned while here at Earthship Academy.

First off, tires form the foundation of Earthship design. Why use tires? Tires are currently one of the world's primary and problematic sources of waste. It is estimated that about 300 million tires are thrown away each year. The rate at which tires are produced in relation to their expendability has resulted in an overwhelming amount of tires in local landfills.

(Source: the Times-Tribune)

 One of the solutions the government Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has come up with is to burn the tires and cultivate the fumes for fuel. However, while the EPA claims that tire burning neutralizes the toxic chemicals such as benzene, lead, butadiene, and styrene, these claims have not been proven and continue to pose a serious risk for the environment.

Meanwhile, Earthships provide an effective means to repurpose used tires without remanufacturing or chemically decomposing the material. The availability of used tires across the world makes it a great resource for sustainable building construction. This means, Earthships can be built anywhere. One of the benefits in situations where Earthships are hailed for humanitarian and relief efforts is that they can find tires, even in remote places such as the Andaman Islands and the Philippines where it is usually very difficult to ship building materials.

(Photo courtesy of Charmaine Jones)

A conventional model Earthship uses about 1000 tires to create the foundation. When packed with dirt, tires become like durable bricks that provide structural support and thermal mass for the building. Earthships have achieved incredible success in passive solar energy design due to its tire foundation. In fact, the most current Earthship design is able to maintain a constant 72 degree temperature inside the home - naturally - without conventional heating or cooling systems because of its thermal mass.

Another reason why tires are used in Earthships is because of it durability. During a lecture with the creator of Earthships, Michael Reynolds, he explained that even after a forest fire, an Earthship in New Mexico did not burn down thanks to the tire wall foundation. "It's true that a pile of tires, once on fire, is almost impossible to extinguish. Both in the case of rammed-earth tire walls and tire bale walls, there is insufficient oxygen to maintain an ongoing fire and can easily be extinguished." Reynolds showed us a picture of the resulting fire and it displayed the interior and corner of the roof of the Earthship destroyed, but the tire base was still intact! It was a pretty astounding sight and definitely proved the efficiency of tire wall application.

(Photo courtesy of Charmaine Jones)

On this second week of Earthship Academy, I had the chance to work on a tire-brick foundation for a new project. Here is an infographic I created to show the simple process of building a tire wall that anyone can do!:

Step 1: Find used tires with similar dimensions and line the bottom with cardboard. For our build, we mainly used tires that were marked "P235/75R15." However, when the tires weren't marked, we used a measuring tape to find ones that were of similar sizes. Then we used scrap cardboard and lined the tire until the holes were completely covered.

Step 2: Place newly cardboard lined tires in rows on your planned construction site. We lined the tires on our construction site along a straight line which would form the foundation of the building. Now they were ready for the next step, "tire pounding."

Step 3: Fill and pack tires with dirt to make the "tire brick." We prepared buckets of dirt from the mesa and poured them into the tires. A sledge hammer was used to "pound" the dirt into the sides until they were solid and firm.

Step 4: Stack and Stagger tire bricks until a wall is formed! One tip before stacking the tires is to make sure the row of tires are even because sometimes there will be variations in thickness of the tire bricks after they have been pounded. When you've built up the tire wall, you can plaster over it and you can even add a aluminum can or bottle mosaic design!

The possibilities are endless when you use recycled materials...

(Picture of new Earthship Village Ecologies (EVE) building)

Talk to you soon!

-Peace*~!

Earthship Academy - Week 1

Greetings from Taos NM!

(Photo courtesy of Sorriso Lu)

So, the first week of Academy is over - and what an exciting first week it's been! On the first day, I was stunned to find out that there were going to be over 60 students from all over the world attending this year's final academy session - making it the largest group at Earthship Biotecture thus far. Upon signing in at the Academy doors, I learned that there were people from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Portugal, Nova Scotia, Ireland, Iceland and even Nigeria here to learn about the best sustainable living solution through smarter building design - Earthship Biotecture!

During orientation, they assigned us our housing, class groups, and program schedule for the next month. Since this Academy is only a 4-week session (they also offer 6-week sessions), we would only have one day off each week. From Monday through Saturday, we would have lectures, Earthship tours, and build work, alternating in the morning and afternoon with the other groups. It was going to be a month full of excitement, intensive learning experiences, and new challenges. I was filled with anticipation!

After orientation, we checked into our dorms. I was assigned to the "Castle" Earthship which was one of Michael Reynold's earliest conceptual design experiments. The Castle is 3 stories tall with an all aluminum can exterior finish. The building definitely resembled an old European "Castle" with emphasis on rustic wood and grey stone application throughout the building. The first floor had an open greenhouse at the entrance, a kitchen, and living room fitted with an adobe fireplace surrounded by stone seating.

Running straight through the of the Castle was a wooden spiral staircase that led to the upper floors. The second floor led to the bathroom and the two single bedrooms on either side. Third floor led to an open loft where me and 3 other women would share a space. I nestled into my spot right in front of large expansive windows overlooking Taos and the beautiful surrounding mountain range. I set up my bed and looked forward to seeing the sunrises here every morning.

Shanti, our Resident Assistant, greeted us after we satiated our early curiosity and excitement. She went on to tell us about the Earthship we would be living in. Shanti explained that the Castle, like all Earthships, runs on solar power. During the day our battery would be constantly replenished when we used electricity. In the evening we would be on a battery reserve until the next day. The building's solar system has been working for almost a decade and has proven incredible efficiency. As we'd find out later that week, the reserves were so effective that we were even able to survive an all night party with music and everything! ^.^

Shanti explained, although the Castle uses water from an underground well, the evolution of Earthships has brought the more recent building design to also catch and filter rainwater directly from the roof. And like all Earthships, the Castle has a grey and black water system to manage our water waste. When we shower or use the bathroom sink, the used water feeds into the planters in the greenhouse area where various plants are growing. The plants help purify the grey water and is then recirculated into the bathroom to flush the toilet. Black water from the toilet then feeds into an outdoor planter where the plants outside would safely and naturally filter our waste. I was excited by the idea that I would be living in a way that would significantly reduce my harm to the Earth and that this building would prevent contamination of the nearby water streams through practical water management systems.

During our lecture with Michael Reynolds the second day, he explained that Earthships are not just shelters, and they are not just houses. "When we think of a house, the common imagery is a box with a triangular roof on top - but that's not an Earthship." He emphasized that Earthships do not merely provide us with a barrier against the elements. "They are not just shelters either." Rather, he says that they are machines, "machines that harness the forces of nature to your benefit."

As all the students are experiencing life in the Earthships during our time here, we are just getting to know our Earthship "machines." For me, Earthships require that I become more sensitive and aware of my needs. It obliges me to reflect on how I feel in my living space and then take action to calibrate the Earthship to suit how I feel most comfortable. For example, when the Earthship is overwhelmed by the heat of the powerful New Mexican sun (which shines through the southfacing greenhouse), I have to adjust the natural "cooling" system by opening our windows and doors to allow in the east/western winds. It's as if everything about the way an Earthship functions is natural and makes me feel in harmony not only with my immediate surroundings but with the seasons and changes of the Earth.

For the first time I feel at ease to live and learn and work without fear that what I do naturally as a human being can and will create consequences for the future. Unattached to the conventional plumbing, sewage, and electric "grid" that creates adverse effects on the land and water such as toxic waste, the Earthships grant a new freedom to experience living in a different way. Already it's opened my mind to the broader possibilities in building structures which can entirely reshape the way people direct their lives.

I look forward to the rest of my time at Academy as I join a group of like-minded people who feel at home a world of new opportunities and solutions to our environmental problems.

Talk to you next week!

-Peace*~!