Earthship Bio-Architecture: The Food Producing Sustainable Home

Earthship bio-architecture was first created by Michael Reynolds from Taos, New Mexico in the 1970’s. This new model of green infrastructure uses recycled tires that are beat full of earth to create thick, solid walls for your home instead of wasting away in landfills. Rainwater is captured for all household use. Water from the sinks and showers (grey water) gets treated by filtering through the inside greenhouse gardens which grow food after which goes to flush the toilets. It then is sent outside to a septic tank.

Earthships by design to reduce wasted energy and typically stay a comfortable 60 – 75 degrees year around with no additional heating or air conditioning. The south side of the earthship is mostly glass allowing the sun to shine deep into the home in wintertime due to it sitting low in the horizon. This provides winter heat as well as sunshine for the indoor garden. The thick thermal mass walls collect the heat and then release it back into the atmosphere at night. Power is produced by solar panels and stored in batteries for energy when the sun isnt out. An Earthship is an off grid food producing sustainable home.

THE 6 KEY ELEMENTS OF EARTHSHIP BIOTECHTURE ARE:

┏ Generation of Power
┏ Water Harvesting
┏ Heating and Cooling without Fuel
┏ Containing and Treating of Sewage on Site
┏ In Home Food Production
┏ Building with Recycled Materials