With walls made from old tires packed with earth, as well as upcycled glass bottles and cans, Earthships have always been built with mainly found materials. The home provides its own energy (with photovoltaics, passive solar and geothermal tubes), water (rainwater and even dew-water capture) and grows food in the greenhouse (necessary for temperature regulation and for filtering the water to be reused).
Earthship Biotecture has just completed their first Encounter, a somewhat more affordable model that provides all the power, water and food of a more costly home. Deborah Binder built her own home, and helped in community projects in places like Malawi and Puerto Rico. She gives us a tour of the first Encounter, as well as the Global model she is test-living. Phil Basehart stopped pounding tires to explain how the Encounter compares to other models.
You can watch the video at www.youtube.com
I hope to one day work in a project where I can combine the earthship concept but building it with bags instead of tyres. It should work, right? Best regards.
Yes, I definitely agree that building an Earthship style dwelling with earthbags instead of packed tires makes a lot of sense. I’m sure it would be way easier and faster, without needing to pound all of those tires and then fill in all the huge gaps formed between them.