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Earthships: Beyond Sustainability
The public face of sustainable design and building is becoming the overly green skyscrapers and overflowing terraces with luscious big trees. However, more so than ever, these beautiful and poetic renders by architects cease to come to life due to their cost of construction and maintenance
Published May 7, 2020
Earthships: Beyond Sustainability
Earthships and their principles.
The public face of sustainable design and building is becoming the overly green skyscrapers and overflowing terraces with luscious big trees. However, more so than ever, these beautiful and poetic renders by architects cease to come to life due to their cost of construction and maintenance as well as the client’s desire to fulfill the vision. Therefore, if you’re a skeptic and looking for further sustainable options, read through this article to know about Earthships.
What is an Earthship ?
The Earthship is essentially a living structure co-existing and responding to its environment and surroundings. The earthship concept and model was developed by the architect Michael Reynolds.
The Earthship, as described by earthshipglobal.com, is designed and constructed on the basis of 6 design principles. The six principles if followed, result in a well-rounded and truly sustainable building that does not depend on costly active systems.
The Earthship is essentially a living structure co-existing and responding to its environment and surroundings.
Six Design Principles
Solar & Wind Electricity
The energy of earthships is derived from solar and wind powers, thus, these structures mostly heat and cool themselves without the use of fossil fuels, wood, or electricity.
Thermal Cooling & Heating
The earthships use recycled and materials and passive methods such as natural conviction and thermal mass to passively cool and heat the building
Earthships use reclaimed and recycled materials within their construction. One famous reclaimed element are the walls made of tires. Other materials that can be utilized are glass bottles, cans, mud, recycled wood, and metal.
Water Harvesting
The water is collected from the rain as well as the snow from the roof. The water then can be used for bathing, washing dishes and clothes. Thus, resulting in a self-sufficient water supply for the users.
Sewage Treatment
The water within the earthships is used 4 times where the grey water is sent off to the plants to be used up and filtered by them. The naturally filtered water is then used to flush toilets on demand. Lastly, the water then moves to a septic tank to be used by the landscape plants and greenery.
Food production
Food to be produced on site using innovative, sustainable, organic methods.
Solar & Wind Electricity
The Earthships utilize solar panels, wind mills, batteries, and power generating module. The solar panels and wind mills collect energy from renewable resources and then charge the batteries in the power generating module to then be distributed from the batteries to the rest of the house.
The collection of power from renewable resources is not enough if the energy demands within the house and design are not reduced. The house should include efficient lighting, efficient electrical appliances, as well as natural ventilation and passive cooling and heating methods. This way, the Earthship can be off-grid and self-sufficient through generating its own electricity.
Thermal Cooling and Heating
The Earthships use three main strategies when it comes to passively cooling and heating the house without the use of fossil fuels. The three strategies comprise of solar gain, thermal mass, and natural conviction. The living spaces are surrounded by three sides of thermal mass which constitute of automobile tires and rammed earth as well as a thermal rap insulation layer.
The Earthship responds to the surrounding season and temperature where in the winter, the glass south-facing façade heats the mass of the thick walls. When the temperature of the space inside drops below the temperature of the thermal mass, the walls release the heat in the space, thus, passively heating the living spaces. Whereas in the summer, due to the tilt of the glass façade and the high angle of the sun, the sun only affects and is utilized by the plants. In addition, the natural cool temperature of the deep earth cools the building. Another cooling method is through natural conviction ventilation from an underground cooling tubes as well operable windows and skylights. This ensures an active and a responsive structure throughout summer and winter.
Building with Natural and Recycled Materials
These sustainable living structures make use of reclaimed, recycled, and natural materials to minimize the effects of pollution. The Earthship uses used automobile tires rammed with earth. These walls are load bearing and wide enough to be considered as foundation, the tires are stacked like bricks and filled with earth. The Earthship structure usually uses up from 500 – 5,000 tires. Whereas the interior walls, they are mostly made with earth and plaster (earth from site, sand, plaster, chopped straw for binding and crack prevention, and water). The interior walls usually have glass or plastic bottles or cans within them for decoration and natural lighting effects. Another alternative to the earth and plaster for the interior walls, some projects use adobe bricks.
Building and designing an Earthship is a very customized process and personal as well. Every site and project possesses different restrictions and potentials, thus, reclaimed wood and scrap metals are also options to be used within the house as well as any other by product that can be found and used.
Water Harvesting
Water harvesting within the Earthship is done through roof catchment, cisterns, water organizing module, and a solar hot water heater.
The water is harvested and collected from the rain and snow that falls on the roof of the Earthship. It is then stores in a buried cisterns which in turn feeds the water organizing module. The water organizing module filters, pressurizes, and pumps water to the water fixtures as well as to the solar hot water heater on the roof.
The water is used four times within the Earthship where it moves from grey water to the plants, back to the toilets, and then out to septic tanks to irrigate the landscape plants.
Sewage Treatment
The Earthship uses all its water four times. The grey water collected from sinks and showers goes through a particle filters to then pass through the botanical cells, thus, growing plants, becomes oxygenated, and clean enough to be used as in the toilets for flushing. The black water from the toilet then travels to a septic tank. The septic tank then irrigates the landscape plants. Thus, the clean ground water is reserved from being contaminated and wasted.
Food Production
The Earthship uses grey water botanical cells to produce year round food for the residents of the ship. Food production within the Earthship does not only mean botanical greenhouses, the definition also extends to include fish, and animals in order for a house to be able to sustain itself.
References :
https://www.earthshipglobal.com/design-principles
Image courtesy of : https://earthshipbiotecture.com/france-earthship-tour/
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