Beyond Biotecture. The Evolution of Earthships (EcoKnowme)
I have been interested in Earthships for quite some years now and I am constantly amazed at how people are taking the basic idea and running with it, to greater heights. The original idea of creating homes that sustain the occupants through clever, integrated design using recycled materials, passive solar design, rainwater catchment, greywater reuse,renewable energy and blackwater processing.... all in one.
You may have heard me talk about Earthships or Sustainable housing in previous posts. I owe my hands on learning to @eco-alex who both introduced me to his own home construction and incidentally, Steemit! Another Earthship expert I recommend you checking out is @nature-jon who hails from the UK and is active in the building community, offering his skills and experience to those wanting help in the eco building world.
@eco-alex has a nice post showing his home and some of the features of Earthships that make them Super appealing.
10 Reasons Why EarthShips Are Totally Awesome!
But as much as I like how far the ideas have come and how popular they are becoming around the world. I still feel like more could be done to make these homes EVEN MORE self sufficient. Check out this new project based on the same Principles as Biotecture.
Lifehaus Promotional Video
After helping with an Earthship build in Bali, Indonesia, the enthusiasm and urge to build was redirected to a project of their own in their home country.
There is an article you can read too:
Amazing low-cost, off-grid Lifehaus homes are made from recycled materials
I also liked what adjustments were made to this house:
Foxhole Homes Tour
Duuvy, an Aussie on the East Coast of 'Stralya is one of the people working on helping get Earthships built and is trying to improve on them by integrating innovative materials, like Hempcrete.
Australia's First Earthship - Part 1
So my main gripes/suggestions regarding Earthships, as they stand so far:
-Too much concrete, but makes sense in many applications. However, cob, adobe, hempcrete etc could be made more commonplace or encouraged as a first choice if materials, time and skill allow.
- Make composting toilets normal. Mike Reynolds himself admits the black water could be eliminated altogether and lots of water saved, but in order to get past the palate of most Westerners, he figured changing bathroom habits would be too much for most people. I don't think it matters much now. People know Earthships are great and living in one shows that you don't care too much about being normal vs being happy. Taking control of one more Waste cycle would seem to be a natural extension of this idea evolving anyway.
-Biogas digesters SHOULD BE MANDATORY. So we live off grid, no water bill, no power bill we just need to go to town once or twice a year to get a bottle of Dino farts for my super eco home. Burn your compost's farts instead. Here are 3 designs from Auto Awesome Just-buy-it to a sleek DIY, to a big Jeezly thing you can make in most countries and could be added to the side or integrated INTO the design of a house, just like the Cisterns.
HomeBiogas - Turn Your Waste into Energy
Solar CITIES IBC Biogas System Tutorial Complete
Compact Biogas Plant
-Bedini Motors to make better use of the power coming in through renewables. Also supercapacitors or more eco friendly energy storage options should be explored. Edison's battery is still worthy of mention and worth investigating. I won't explain Bedini here, but here are some interesting batteries you can get now:
Though I also wrote this: https://steemit.com/science/@ecoknowme/need-science-people
which might be applicable too.
Lastly, Greywater. Botanical Cells are great but what I liked about the Lifehaus was the immediate use of greywater for the WHOLE landscape, this seems like a good way to integrate better with the surrounding environment, but Botanical cells for Blackwater coming out of a Septic Tank, is an absolute must. However, you don't need an Earthship to appreciate this cool Grey water innovation I came across that utilizes the help of worms to process solids, nutrify the water and make the system flow better. Check it out:
Permaculture Tip of the Day - Gravity Fed "Dark" Gray Water System
I could go into Bioremediation or Living Machines, but I think that is enough for now. Anything you would like to add?
How can we make best use of the available ideas and technologies and put them together to make something better and New?
UpVote! ReSteem! and Comment Below so we can learn together!
This is so brilliant. I am so happy that finally humanity is reaching a greener level, looking forward to the mass adoption of the project.
Followed, upvoted, and definitely resteemed !
Cheers @sharethevibes ! Much appreciated. Hope this topic gets more popular as things move on too :)
I am a fan of Earthships, too. My boss has actually visited the original on in Taos. Have you ever lived in one that was in a hot, humid climate? It seems like it would need a dehumidifier system.
The design needs to be adjusted for your climate. If it is really hot, you can install cooling tubes that are about 6-12" around and are buried about 6 feet underground spanning at least 30 feet or so. Combining this with the passive solar design and skylights that open to allow heat out and for cool air to be pulled through the Earth pipes. In India, there are ancient systems of air conditioning that even had flowing water through marble openings. It's all about design! Ventilation is probably helpful for humidity, but to a point. Anyone else have suggestions for humidity? Thanks for your comment @professorbromide ! They have designs now for places like the Phillipines, that's probably the best starting point to see what adaptations they have made.
haha, I have just seen a 1 hour video about Earthships and I was amazed how awesome they look. Not to mention how useful they are. In the video they had everything, water filtration which allowed them to use their water 4 times for different things such as showering, watering their plants (which also provided them with food) flushing the toilet and for gardening. What surprised me the most was that those houses didn't look bad at all. If someone would have told me: Yeah I live in a house build from trash and car tires I would've never imagined such beautiful homes. Truly great idea and encouraged me to try this stuff out myself at some point.
So glad to hear it @thauerbyi ! think you would be willing to Resteem for others to find out about it too? One thing I only briefly mentioned was 'Living Machines' Which, could also be integrated. That way you could use different plants to process sewage naturally until it could be safe for drinking. This happens all the time, but we don't copy nature, yet!
Upvote and resteem. Sure.
Thank you!
Nice, very nice! Upvoted and resteemed. I've been meaning to post about some earthship-INSPIRED homes as well (still planing, but wanna share yours first). Those ones can be anything from crap to amazing, but there is always an idea that was, at least in the beginning, an intended improvement of the official Earthships.
The overuse of concrete was also my first gripe about them, but it all depends what resources you have on hand. Irrigating your surroundings with your greywater is a great idea, IF you produce enough of it. The one I wrote about combines grey and blackwater, runs it through a worm-bin first, filters it, then spreads it out. The location was New Zealand with more than ample rain. In the desert even more water would be needed, so I don't think an indoor greywater planter is a bad idea. Once again, depends on the conditions of the site. Methane digesters, however, are super awesome (though the word mandatory tends to rub me the wrong way)! Those ones I could even imagine even in a high-rise apartment building.
I like toast 🍞
I haz toast
We did?
Agreed, Mandatory is a pretty strong word considering that some people might not be into cooking, could use solar ovens, concentration cookers, rocket stoves, lorenas or just a really efficient conduction stove. Who is to say you might not be Raw Vegan and just need lots of garden space for greens and sprouts???? I guess I was trying to be provocative and point out the recurrent theme you see in Earthship house tours, where everything is amazing but we should all be super excited that their LPG tank only needs filling ONCE a year. Frack that. I also just really love those resources and thought it could come in handy for anyone planning or perhaps halfway into a build. most people cook with gas, it's surprisingly easy to include, why not just make it part of the basic package? Your thoughts on Greywater are really important. I mentioned to someone here that I think my ideal would be more of an integrated grey water botanical cell with an entire space dedicated to a living machine that could enable the same water to be recycled indefinitely. You would only need to recharge the water that is lost in food and evaporation through rain water. The second Biogas video is particularly cool since it could indeed be used in a High rise apartment, or a basement, regardless of your climate since it can be temperature controlled. Sayin' a biogas digester is mandatory is about as bad as insisting on a rocket stove or a cob oven for all Adobe houses. hopefully inspiring flight instead of ruffling feathers, but I do appreciate the observation. Will try to lay out a menu instead of insisting on the Special. Thanks @stortebeker !
Well, I just had to jump on "mandatory" as it is one of those button-pushing words for me. I mean, even the most basic things, like respecting your fellow beings should not be mandatory. If some can't do it voluntarily, that's a problem an obligation won't fix. But since we seem to be coming from the same corner anyway, and having discussed this sufficiently, we can now throw around words like 'obligation' without creating misunderstanding among each other. :-)
I once visited a place in Northern New Mexico, also earthship inspired, with a similar setup as the one I saw in New Zealand. The guy said he didn't like semi-flush toilets for precisely that reason: that they only provide half the water for his trees. In that case he would have to water them additionally with a hose. Also, your idea of the continuous irrigation is great for using less water. Still, I would combine it with something like a worm-box, to supply the plants with nutrients too. (Recently Earthships started doing something like that in their Simple-Survival models.) So many nutrients tend to go through our kitchens, it would be ideal to hook it up with our planter.
Did you see my direct message on Slack?
Oop, will check now. Regarding the worm and waste water, the last video might be similar to what you are talking about. I guess it is pretty complicated, and specific to site, climate and circumstances. Kindof like Aquaponics. On the one hand, great way to reduce water use, but also not without problems. The simplest are usually the best. There is a Fig tree that is 3-4x the size of another one twice it's age,l.... thanks to a tiny grey water tube. Just unbelievable the difference made with that tiny trickle. Ok, see you over there!
I just sent this post to Curie, let's see what happens. Btw, my article for the world-problem-challenge is gonna have to wait another day. It's done, but I don't like it enough to declare it as done.
I know the feeling. But it is good to get in the habit of prosuming, I guess :) Thanks so much for the submission to #curie ! We'll see if it meet the code. Look forward to sitting down with a cup of tea and your words. Cheers!
Wow @ecoknowme great article. Thank you :)
Thanks @nature-jon thought you might like it! You were a big inspiration for it!
Well, it certainly is mutual inspiration my friend
Great post. Earthships do indeed have a lot of potential especially if you work with the base concepts and than adapt it to the specific scenario at hand.
I have actually built EarthShips with Michael Reynolds him self.
Have you seen the movie garbage warrior? If not check it out.
Thanks @quinneaker ! One of my favs, also like New Solutions for the construction instruction. So cool you got to build with Mike! I just got to meet his Tire pounding disciples. Would love to meet him but not sure if I could keep up with his ability to create building materials after work, still, sounds like just the kinda crazy we need right now. Steem on!
Yea crazy greatness!
I certainly think the composting toilet and personal biogas generators are a must. But I'm back and forth on the use of "garbage" being reused to build my home. Don't get me wrong, I work at an architectural salvage yard, I'm all about reuse but I'm also not sure I'm okay using some of the things like tires and plastics in my home. The off-gassing for one.
I got the chance to visit the home of Robert & Paula Laporte in Ashland, Oregon, and it was breathtaking. All Natural materials with wood frame and earthen floors. I can't even describe what it felt like in that house. Perfect peace, protection from the turbulence of the outside world. But after speaking with them I was a bit unconvinced about some parts of the earth-ship idea. (Of course that's just me)
Great links though and lots to think about. When we finally find some land to build on we'll be taking all of this to heart.
I feel you. The tires thing was an issue for me too, until I saw a presentation about how these concerns were studied by various groups as Earthships were taking off in popularity. Off gassing is not an issue so long as the tires are covered, which the mud and plaster does nicely. Plus there is the THERMAL Mass benefit, which is incomparable to any other material you would use... even Rammed Earth can't reach that density...you'd have to build something like a tire to hold that much mass in such a small space. The plastic bottles also have no off gassing issue if they are encased in mud or cement, which is the primary way people use them (botanical cells to cut down on cement). The plastics may be more valuable as free material for recycling, upcycling, 3d printing or making fuel in the present/future..... Glass bottles however, are just pretty when done nicely. I agree for the most part, more Natural materials should be prioritized first, but there are some things you can do with tires that are near impossible to do with other materials. In my case, I don't have tire walls, but a tire retaining wall is the support for the whole house, which is cob/timber(without that, my house would slide off the mountain, masons are also hit and miss here). Biotecture is applicable to all buildings, but I think once the principles are understood, the ideas can be expanded and evolved upon. Thanks for the comment @jayjayjeffery ! One way or another, we will come up with ways to deal with the waste of society, this is just one option. Cheers @ecoknowme
Thanks for the good response. I wondered if that was the case with the tires and bottles once they were covered but had never read any actual testing done about it. And I've never been in an "earth ship" only very eco homes. I really do have to make a trip to visit one and see what it feels like inside.
Yeah that looks about right for me! When people talk about overpopulation and stuff I always say, do you know how many different places we could grow food now.
Exactly. We lack imagination, not resources.