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Earthships are passive solar homes that set a standard for sustainable architecture. They minimize reliance on public utilities and fossil fuels as they require no heating or cooling, they produce all their own power, they have a plumbing system which allows them to re-use rainwater four times and they are built from fortyfive percent recycled materials. Earthships are in use in countries worldwide. Currently there are two completed Earthships in the UK, one in Fife (Figure 1), and the other in Brighton, however there are many more in stages of planning and construction. Some of these plans include Earthship communities. Figure 1: Fife Earthship, Scotland
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Mike Reynolds, the architect and founder of Earthship Biotecture, is profoundly concerned by how many buildings depend on centralised systems for heat, light, water and sewage. He warns that as our population grows the stress on these systems is dramatically increased. Reynolds recognises the need to respond to energy, food and water shortages with a new approach to architecture. He designs (and builds) buildings that integrate themselves with the earth instead of continually taking from it: The Earthship has been designed to reduce our impact on the planet and increase our connection 1 to it. In September of this year I spent a month in Taos on an internship with Earthship Biotecture. I stayed in a community called REACH, which was built to push the limits of Earthship design (Figure 2). Nine homes here are built at an altitude of 9,500 feet on the side of a steep mountain and have existed for twenty years without power lines, wells or sewers.
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www.earthship.net
An Earthship is defined by six principles which are based on thirty five years of experimental building techniques: Thermal/solar heating and cooling Building with natural and recycled materials Water harvesting Contained sewage treatment Solar and wind electricity Food production
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Figure 3: The angle of the glass on the south face depends on the latitude of the site
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Due to the Scottish climate, the Fife Earthship has a rigid thermal wrap and a water barrier which encase earth behind its thick walls (Figure 4). Because this earth is dry, insulated, and massive it has the same properties as the wall, and creates a large heat store for the building. This means that each wall has more than a meter of thermal mass. This method is also used in the Earthship in Wishaw, Scotland. In addition to high thermal mass, many Earthships are earthbermed on three sides (Figure 5). This increases the thermal mass and, if the building is buried deep enough, allows the structure to be in contact with the earths stable temperature (about 12C). Earth tubes can also been buried in the berm to provide fresh air at a comfortable temperature.
Figure 4: Earthship in Fife, Scotland has an increased thermal mass to stabilise its temperature in the cold climate.
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Water Harvesting
Why pipe water long distances . . . [using] significant electrical power . . . when water falls from the sky? 3 Earthships are designed to catch and use water from the sky without pumping it from centralised sources. The roof of an Earthship is often corrugated metal with a propanel finish, so clean water can be collected from its surface. The water is channelled through a silt-catch and into a cistern. The cisterns are located so they can gravity-feed a Water Organization Module (W.O.M.), that filters the water to different grades, including drinking water. Water is then pumped into a conventional pressure tank to create regular water pressure. Solar hot water heaters provide hot water, or are used as a backup to an ondemand gas boiler.
Figure 10: A greywater planter in Taos, NM. The large trees are banana trees which ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3) www.earthship.net have fruit on them.
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Food Production
A space for growing food is an integral part of the design of an Earthship. This is to reduce the need for the vast amounts of oil and packaging used to deliver and protect supermarket food. The plants are watered by the greywater treatment system (as they are grown in the greywater planters), so can grow all year round. When soaps are diluted and added to the plant water, they make the plants stronger and more resistant to pests. Bananas, grapes and avocadoes are good foods to start off in the planters as they are strong plants. Once these robust plants are happy in the planter, more fragile plants can be introduced, such as lettuces. The Phoenix Earthship, Taos, has a greenhouse with birds and tree frogs living in it and is split into different temperature zones so that a variety of fruits and vegetables can be grown within it. It grows all its own food including mangoes, artichokes and bananas and has a pond with edible fish in it (Figure 11, below The living room in the Phoenix Earthship, Taos, New Mexico).
Figure 12: Earthship in Wishaw, Scotland The Earthship in Wishaw went under construction earlier this year (2009)
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