This is part 5 of a transcribed and edited biotecture lecture by Michael Reynolds. If you do read or watch this and have any questions please ask in the comments. I am happy to educate and help you to understand this. Biotecture is amazing in so many ways, and even after 20 years I still have not seen a model of sustainable building that even comes close in so many important areas such as performance, carbon footprint, longevity, ease of build, etc.. Now you can also come to understand what Biotecture Really Is about!

Commentary

Part 5 starts with issues relating to planning and getting permits. Michael Reynolds's experience has shown him that if we want to spread biotecture at a faster pace, we have to start choosing locations to build on that don't have too many planning restrictions, or else seize a moment when there is crisis and bring these solutions to people at a time of great need. There is more detail on this in the previous part.

Mike has learned to satisfy planning regulations for septic and sewage systems by doing or even just saying what they need to see or hear to be able to approve something. One example is the connection of an earthship to a municipal sewage system, which is done but not used. This satisfies the law that a home must be connected to the sewage systems, but the law doesn’t say you have to use them, and so these earthships continue to use their own decentralised natural sewage processing systems.

Mike also talks about retrofitting, which is a very important issue, and one of the hardest things to do successfully. Mike has developed a very sensible approach to retrofitting, and one that is well worth thinking about if you own a home are are thinking about how best to make it more sustainable and efficient.

Finally Mike explains why tyre walls are not toxic and do not off-gass.. this is an issue that so many people bring up and so you can read the science and why it is a non issue and in fact even safer and better then the toxic tire dumps that pervade the world. When tire piles catch fire they can NOT be put out and can burn for weeks and months causing serious pollution.

This can not happen with a tyre wall, as discovered after a serious fire in one home that was left with nothing much more than the tyre walls.

I have also taken the time to bold any important parts, concepts, and words. It has never been easier to read and understand Biotecture than this, this is like a Biotecture feast! This part begins with Michael talking about the Global Model Earthship that he has been developing for decades. This model has gotten so good that they are able to heat the home, even in freezing temperatures like in Norway using no power by using very subtle heat sources.

Earthship Seminar Transcription Part 5

How To Handle Planning and Permits

I've gone through all of the different levels of how to do this, from fighting to whatever... Fighting takes too much energy. You know, I just tell them what want to hear now. *Laughter* You know... 'You want this? You've got it!'... And half of them... Half of the officials even know that. That's what I'm doing. But it makes them safe. 'Cause they know that what's in the rule book is wrong. I mean, I have had officials in Colorado asked me for a job, so... So we have inherently a conventional septic system. The way I... We use it as part of our unconventional system. The way I see it in my head is like... When you have a dog, it's got worms. And you've gotta worm pill you have to give it. You put the worm pill in the bowl of hamburger and the dog just whiffs it down... So that's the way I deal with the regulation people, you know... *Laughter* I put in the bowl of hamburger and they wolf it down. And it works! But still, there's, you know... There's still the process and everything, so it's like...we're aiming for projects that...

I mean, I'm like... I'm not trying to be... A doomsday person or anything, but... For us to spend our time... fighting... the bureaucrats... As opposed to spending our time building an Earthship. It's way more important to us to build an Earthship out in the boonies, '... You know, we were out in the boonies in Mile City in Montana. But John and my son puts it on the web, people see it going up, they see a carbon-zero building going up, going up quick and the world sees it. And of course, that causes, you know... I think while we were in... Miles City's when the governor of the Galapagos asked us to come down there. And may be, it was... while I was in Australia. In which is all the same things are going on there. They need it desperately, they need all of these things desperately. But, they're just... They get it to the certain point of recognizing that they need it, and then they're hitting the brick wall of their own codes and regulations and rules.

And... we're looking in it, trying to find pockets of freedom their and the other thing with Australia is just like in this country. The place that's gonna get to do it quickest is the Mao... or the a... Aborigines. And in New-Zealand the Maoris. They... say that this is the... closest thing the white man is done to the way they believe. And... *Small giggle* (Comment:) And it has a flat screen TV. Yeah! *Laughter* And so... We're now aiming our efforts at the quickest place we can do it. And not giving up on the other situations, like I've had one See, there's... you can take all of these principles and... we could build with and army of people, and we're getting an army of people basically... We could put an army of people together building these buildings all over the world, and we wouldn't scratch the surface of what the number of existing buildings are.

Aborigines and in New-Zealand the Maoris, they... say that this is the... closest thing the white man is done to the way they believe.

So taking these principles and applying in what is called 'retrofit' to a... Existing buildings is a serious issue. And... You know, it's not near as fun as going out in the boonies (rural areas) and starting from scratch and throwing up a carbon-zero building. It's... takes... it's a lot more... mental application to try to take an existing building, And... And retrofit it. It's expensive as well. But... We're doing it and... attempting it. But... What I'm getting at is we've got a project that's been on the books, on the drawing board and everything, in Long Beach, California just a little... Half million dollar home that's somebody bought and wants to turn it, add on to it and make it... retrofitted to be more... toward carbon-zero, they can't get an absolutely carbon-zero. And... They're coming up against things like it is in a historic zone. And... We can't even put thermal windows in it. Because you have to replace the windows with like... kind of stuff, which is the old window weights and the old glass... I mean, it's ridiculous. I mean, history is for history books, you know. Otherwise people are gonna be history. And so it's like insane what's going on with retrofit. But retrofit is something like... It's something that have in your minds, because everybody can't build a new house. Some people are gonna need to retrofit the existing house, and it's taking everything, all the principles are simply the same. It's the procedure and... ...applying them into an existing building. A way...

Retrofitting City Homes

I was asked to go to Norway to teach a course, but at the same time the school of architecture in Norway... It's the Bergen School of Architecture, and they... are not part of the university, they're just an architecture school. And they bought a nine storey, concrete, bunker, grain silo that still smells of rotting corn and stuff. But the architecture students are in that building, it is... You know, it's weather proof when it rains on it, it doesn't leak very much. But it's just concrete on 1 ft(~ 30 cm) thick walls... When I got there it was in the winter and students were all in jumpsuits and hats and ear-masks and gloves, sitting their drafting tables, doing architecture... Freezing! And I had... You know... I pulled out and I wore hat and gloves and everything just to be able to talk to them. And... so they wanted me to help them figure out how to retrofit this building. And this really becomes a good approach to retrofit of cities. We had several discussions with all kinds of professors, and designers, and students, and everything... And it was gonna be super expensive to apply all of these principles to this building. But it was a 9 storey building and it did have a huge volume of space. And the concept... And it's really, that's the issue is coming up with the concept first.

Retrofitting By Claiming Small Spaces

The concept that we ended up with to retrofit this building was... It's such a massive... thing that we...we called it... we determined that it was not a building. We called it terrain. Just like, cliffs and... Rock formations and whatever. So we called it terrain and we quit trying to retrofit the building, we just went in and made little areas. Like swallows build little mud nest on the overhangs of a super 8 motels, and stuff like that... We would go in and apply all these principles to a little area. You know, this little area is warm, has a little solar panel, has a little water catchment, has plants growing, and we just go in like a little... little cells of cancer almost and... overtake this building, and... rather than trying to retrofit the whole building, we took our space. And applied all these principles to it. And so anyway, that's just another approach on retrofit because we're trying the more-less conventional approach to this house in Long Beach and it's like... And it's been going for almost a year, still don't have a permit. It's a shame, you know, that's the way it is. But... So retrofit is gonna be facing the same thing that... that new buildings are. To... You're inhabited by the... nature of the situation.

Tyre Toxicity

(Comment:) quick question, the last time we saw on the slides of the toxicity of the tires. How does... How does your... where have you put all the tires prevent from toxicity... ?

Well... There's two answers to that question. There's another question that probably would come up and I'll go ahead and bring it up is the burning of the tires too. But the tyre... when you go to a tyre store... And it's got the show window and the sun coming through the window, you walk in and smell the rubber. You know, it's off-gassing, they call it. So, lot of people ask that question, and we've got a lot of bad press on the website and stuff about... You know, 'This is garbage!', we even... Actually we went through a period of time when we had to... determine every building as a waste dump. So, get a permit for dumping waste! *Laughter* So, just paper work, but... So a physicist from the University of Wisconsin, on his own volition, did a big thick study... On running air through tires, old tires, new tires, water and so on. And it ended up with the... thought, I think on his last paragraph said that living in a tyre building is as about dangerous as eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. And... So then I would get people that said: 'Well... if that peanut butter and jelly sandwich is on white bread, then it's dangerous.' *Laughter* But the... So you get your sticklers for sure, but the...

The bottom line is he proved that... What he came up with was that tires after they got 20 000 miles (~12 500 km) on them, have done their offgasing, and they're not offgassing anymore, but, in two... they are buried when you take a tyre wall... And we pack out this with cans and mud and cement, and then you plaster that. So your minimum thickness is about 1,5-2 in (~3,8-5,1 cm) of plaster over one place, but that grows to 3,4,5,8,10. So you basically are burying the tyre. That's a tyre wall, it's buried. Even if it was offgasing, it's sealed. But... they don't offgas after they're old and they're buried. So... That is a... non issue, but we still get people... worried about that. I mean, we have in the back of the Phoenix when you go there, the tires are exposed. I mean, I don't think you smell anything back there.

Than... the other question that comes up a lot on tires... is... Burning. Everybody's heard about the tyre piles around the world, spontaneously combusting, which they do. But that's because... like a... if you take a crumpled up piece of newspaper with air all around it and everything, and you torch it with a cigarette lighter, it just goes up and flames. That's... the way a tyre pile is with all the tires with air all around them. They can spontaneously combust and it's hard to put them out. But if you take paper, which is very combustible, in a NYC phone book, and put a cigarette lighter to it, it doesn't go off. It doesn't happen. That's the way a tyre pounded with earth is. It's... and that was my line, at least... that when people asked that question that's what I told them.

Well, that came true because... An Earthship up here in the mountains, went through one of the major forest fires we've had in the last few years. And... the the front face wood burnt off, the glass disintegrated, the roof disintegrated... everything went away. Except the tyre walls. They were plastered and... a couple of places, it wasn't a finished building, A couple of places the tires weren't plastered over, and that part the rubber melted down to the steel belted stuff. But wherever there was plaster on the tires... the tyre wall, they're actually gonna build the building back on the same tyre walls. So... they don't burn.

Earthship Seminar Video 2009 - Part 5

READ PREVIOUS TRANSCRIPTS

Part 1
https://steemit.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-101-learn-with-michael-reynolds-part-1

Part 2
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-seminar-with-michael-reynolds-transcribed-part-2

Part 3
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-seminar-with-michael-reynolds-part-3

Part 4
https://steempeak.com/ecotrain/@eco-alex/earthship-biotecture-transcribed-pt4-heating-your-home-with-body-heat-in-norway-about-permits-in-usa-and-europe-how-to-get-them

Did you know, I built four Earthships in India as well as being instrumental the creation of the first Earthship in the UK, Earthship Brighton. If you are also on this path and would like to read my story, I have recently published a book. It is not only a great story, but a valuable resource for you to learn from. I had no experience or training when I embarked on my mission, but managed to successfully build a gorgeous home called Earthship Karuna.

You can buy this book with Steem on the homesteaders co-op. Whilst you are there please do have a look at some of the other proudcts as there are all kinds of great things there!

https://homesteaderscoop.com/product/earthship-chronicles-ebook/

If you don't have any steem you can also buy the ebook and paperback on amazon.
http://mybook.to/Earthship-Chronicles
or
https://www.amazon.com/Earthship-Chronicles-sufficient-luxurious-experience-ebook/dp/B07MYCBXYB

 

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