EarthShips! Self sufficient Housing

[SyrupDeGem]

I know it's not a new idea but this particular model is new to me, reusing tyres, bottles, cans and having very little outlay to build a home...offgrid! So the idea is you are completely self sufficient, the home has an internal waste unit, solar electricity, heating/cooling system and you can grow your own crops too. I imagine there are some things you still need to purchase but it will be very low comparitive.


Heres a quick vid of one mans Tedx talk regarding this. His story is pretty amazing, I watched a documentary on him a couple of days ago.He had his licence revoked and he was shunned by the local gvt...once he helped in the tsunami aftermath building his earthships for the victims he finally got given some credit for his work.


Anyway....


I want one!...It's fast becomming a dream for me, living in this self sufficient way, building communities with like minded folk who care about the planet... yah seems like the life for me.

[Creepy-bg]

I've wanted one since i saw them on some travel show. i don't care about the enviornment and being around like minded people so much as find the idea of being able to be off the grid, comfortably, really enticing. buy the place, and then be good to go without having to pump money into living for the rest of life (although i'm sure here in the US, you will still have to do the property tax thing ).

[Creepy-bg]

also, the construction aspect really entices me. I've helped homeless friends build hobo shacks out in the desert using scavenged materials, and really loved doing that sort of thing.

[Absurd]

Houses in outer space planned.

[blackburry]

I know it's not a new idea but this particular model is new to me, reusing tyres, bottles, cans and having very little outlay to build a home...offgrid! So the idea is you are completely self sufficient, the home has an internal waste unit, solar electricity, heating/cooling system and you can grow your own crops too. I imagine there are some things you still need to purchase but it will be very low comparitive.


Heres a quick vid of one mans Tedx talk regarding this. His story is pretty amazing, I watched a documentary on him a couple of days ago.He had his licence revoked and he was shunned by the local gvt...once he helped in the tsunami aftermath building his earthships for the victims he finally got given some credit for his work.


Anyway....


I want one!...It's fast becomming a dream for me, living in this self sufficient way, building communities with like minded folk who care about the planet... yah seems like the life for me.

I WANT !!!!!!!!!!!!!

[krieger]

a solution in search of a problem.

[xerx]

A ship at sea is its own world. To be the captain of a ship is to be the unquestionable ruler of that world and requires all of the leadership skills of a prince or minister. -- Col. Corazon Santiago, "Leadership and the Sea"

[Pa3s]

Earthships are a good solution for single, self-sufficient houses or smaller villages in remote places, not so much for whole cities. Personally, I like the design and the idea behind it, but the best part is the very clever integration of heat-regulation, wastewater treatment and other useful devices directly into the building. And it's all realized with "low tech" means. Our houses could have been constructed similarly, but there was no need for that because people didn't care about the energy-efficiency. Masdar City is an attempt to create a self-sufficient city with a high-tech standard, but also by including useful low-tech elements like windcatchers.

However, I'd still prefer to live in an earthship rather than in Masdar City because they are more individual and constructed by motivated people and not oil sheiks with a huge budget. On the other handside, I don't want to talk down the potential value of Masdar City as an experiement for future self-sufficient cities or even arcologies. It just looks incredibly sterile to me.

[SyrupDeGem]

Earthships are a good solution for single, self-sufficient houses or smaller villages in remote places, not so much for whole cities. Personally, I like the design and the idea behind it, but the best part is the very clever integration of heat-regulation, wastewater treatment and other useful devices directly into the building. And it's all realized with "low tech" means. Our houses could have been constructed similarly, but there was no need for that because people didn't care about the energy-efficiency. Masdar City is an attempt to create a self-sufficient city with a high-tech standard, but also by including useful low-tech elements like windcatchers.

However, I'd still prefer to live in an earthship rather than in Masdar City because they are more individual and constructed by motivated people and not oil sheiks with a huge budget. On the other handside, I don't want to talk down the potential value of Masdar City as an experiement for future self-sufficient cities or even arcologies. It just looks incredibly sterile to me.

Holy wow. It has podcars!! The future is nearly here.

[InvisibleJim]

Masdar is just a t-shirt project.

What ADNOC will do is capture CO2 and 'sequester' it in oil fields. In the process of sequestering it they will produce billions of barrels of oil which will be burnt and produce plenty more CO2. Then they state that the CO2 sequestered will 'offset' the CO2 footprint of Masdar

And how are they going to made the CO2? By burning natural gas in turbines to generate power and then by Methane Reforming to Syngas and extracting the CO2 using amine towers. This will be financially more attractive than running gas lift loops and high pressure gas reinjection into oil fields - but will of course have additional carbon footprint becuase they will have to change all of the well tubing and pipelines to be NACE rated in any field where they wish to inject the CO2.

It's an economic project and certainly not an environmentally friendly one.

[SyrupDeGem]

Masdar is just a t-shirt project.

What ADNOC will do is capture CO2 and 'sequester' it in oil fields. In the process of sequestering it they will produce billions of barrels of oil which will be burnt and produce plenty more CO2. Then they state that the CO2 sequestered will 'offset' the CO2 footprint of Masdar

And how are they going to made the CO2? By burning natural gas in turbines to generate power and then by Methane Reforming to Syngas and extracting the CO2 using amine towers. This will be financially more attractive than running gas lift loops and high pressure gas reinjection into oil fields - but will of course have additional carbon footprint becuase they will have to change all of the well tubing and pipelines to be NACE rated in any field where they wish to inject the CO2.

It's an economic project and certainly not an environmentally friendly one.

That sounds terrible!

I redact my previous post re: thinking it was super futuristic cool. I now think it is terrible because although i understand little of Jims post i do realise this is a field he knows a lot about. So now i am sad due to his knowledge.

Still though, Earthships!

[xerx]

Masdar City is an attempt to create a self-sufficient city with a high-tech standard, but also by including useful low-tech elements like windcatchers.

so, how many indian guest workers slaves does it take to screw in an environmentally friendly light bulb?

[leckysupport]

so, how many indian guest workers slaves does it take to screw in an environmentally friendly light bulb?

Friendly reminder: a large part of the western consumerist driven economy is underpinned by sweatshop slave labor.

[xerx]

Friendly reminder: a large part of the western consumerist driven economy is underpinned by sweatshop slave labor.

that makes me just as angry

[Pa3s]

so, how many indian guest workers slaves does it take to screw in an environmentally friendly light bulb?

No matter under what circumstances it is constructed it can still be used as an experimental site for better, future projects.

EDIT: I'm not endorsing the project for that reason.

[blackburry]

I like the idea of living off the grid and the prospect of lowered utility bills. Don't care about the zero carbon thing though.

oh you bum.


i find that part appealing.

[SyrupDeGem]

I'm converting my loft (most likely)... though theres not enough space to do it with tyres, tins and soil.

[remer]

Garbage Warrior is a 2007 film about architect Mike Reynolds, inventor of the Earthship style of building, directed by Oliver Hodge. It follows Reynolds' and how he developed the Earthship style of building and his struggle with the legislature of Taos, New Mexico, the location of his experimental Earthship community, in order to be allowed to build homes that do not match the structures of local building codes. The film concludes with a postscript showing Reynolds and his team of builders travelling to the Andaman Islands in the aftermath of the Boxing Day tsunami to assist the locals with disaster recovery and teaching them how to construct extremely low-cost homes.



A year back I helped constructing an Earthship project where a residental block of about 7 buildings 3 apartments each is built. The raw building is done by the residents themselves with help of volunteers (like me). Professionals are only contracted for specific tasks and finishing up. The working atmosphere was comfortable, international crowd, it was really fun to do. Met new people, new skills, good food, a great project, what more to wish for :-) Maybe one for myself ;-) But yeah for in the city the initial design lacks, i was thinking more about mansions with multiple layers, like there are these people who are developing the growing of vegetables in basements with red and blue LED lighting, imagine a multilayered story building with a food in the basement, shops above those, some fitness area with all the equipment generating some power, add some solar cells, wind, water, isolation and in my opinion a fine concept for a city.

[SyrupDeGem]

I watched that documentary a while back, I really liked the guy... wondered about his type...ILE/IEE I'd go for ILE first though, I think some people think all ILE's have to be super merry crazy energy all the time but I don't agree with that, they can be cantankerous crazy too.