© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2010. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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On Monday, I started my month-long internship at Earthship Biotecture. Earthships are self-sufficient houses that use recycled materials in their construction, and that are equipped with systems for rainwater catchment, solar and wind power, water reuse, waste control, and food production. What does that mean? It means that once you build an Earthship, you never have to pay an electricity or water bill again. Ever.

Don’t believe me? Good, because I can’t explain it all in a single blog entry. Go read the Earthship website instead, and then watch Garbage Warrior.

I’ve been working on site at the visitor’s center, which was constructed in the 90s as a demonstration building. That’s the entrance in the first photo. Earthships don’t look like much on the outside, but on the inside they’re really lovely.

 
The main room is filled with posters & diagrams of the various Earthship models and systems, plus a demonstration video and press books.

Yes, the TV runs off solar power collected from the roof panels. There are computers running in here too, and an extension cord stretching over to the building site, where it powers all the tools. With enough panels, you can have as much power as you like, even in cloudy areas.

What’s great about this design, however, is how little energy is really being used. Natural light makes it so you don’t need lightbulbs in the daytime, and even in extreme weather the building maintains an even temperature through passive solar heat and thermal mass. Today was cold and windy outdoors, but totally comfortable inside.

Bottle walls are one of the coolest features of Earthship design. They’re literally trash stuck in mud, but they create this beautiful stained-glass effect. That’s the bathroom door, and in front of it is a demonstration water cistern.

Less glamorous but much more important is the Power Organizing Module, which processes all the incoming power and sends it out as DC or AC. Normally this wall would be plastered, but the tires and cans were left exposed so visitors can see the construction technique.

All Earthships have indoor greenhouse areas, which are used for growing flowers and food. The food production techniques are still being perfected, but the ultimate goal is to make it so that you don’t need to buy groceries. It’s pretty amazing to look out over this healthy garden and see how dry and desolate the outside world is.

By the way: look at that window again. See the wooden arch at the far left? That’s part of the new construction.

This structure, and the identical one next to it, are part of Mike Reynolds‘ new additions to the visitor center. You can see that the walls are made of tires stacked like bricks; tires are filled with rammed earth (aka “dirt”) to make them incredibly solid, strong, and temperature-resistant. Non-load-bearing walls are made of cans & bottles, stuck together with cement and adobe.

This wall is just getting started, but you can see the design taking shape. The cans will be plastered over, but bottles will have their ends exposed to let in the light.

Once the wall’s thickness is determined, the bottles are cut with a tile saw and the two fat ends taped together. Then you just cement them in.

But before you can get to the fancy stuff, the tires have to be pounded! That’s what we’re doing at the big building, which will eventually become the new visitor center.

That’s my fellow intern Andrew off to the right, showing how it’s done. Yep, a shovel and a sledgehammer and lots of elbow grease. These things are seriously labor-intensive; pounding one tire takes 15-20 minutes for experienced (and acclimated) workers, so for us green kids from lower elevations, it’s taking half an hour per tire.

That’s Tim, the crew member who’s been managing us, working out the levels. Technically, this is a decorative (non-structural) bottle wall so it doesn’t have to be perfect. But sometimes it’s nice—actually, necessary—to stop hammering for a minute, so we’ve been getting everything good and even.

Tim and the other crew members have been amazingly patient and supportive while Andrew and I learn the ropes and build our strength. Working at 7500 feet can be totally exhausting, and when the winds are high it’s hard to catch a deep breath. But we’re learning and getting stronger, and benefiting from all the knowledge around us. Everyone on the crew lives in an Earthship, and many of them built their own houses. They’re professional and creative, and easy to talk to. I feel lucky to be here, even despite the sore muscles.

On that note, it’s off to bed for me. Tomorrow is a full day of tire-pounding on a new site, with all six interns. I’m gonna sleep all weekend!

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: alternative, art, biotecture, design, earthship, Earthship Biotecture, earthships, ecotourism, energy-efficient, featured posts, garbage, green building, New Mexico, recycling, reuse, sustainable, Taos, volunteer, voluntourism

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This is the Waterpod™.

If you live in New York—or if you’re a sustainability geek—you probably heard about this highly ambitious project: 5 artists living on a barge on the waterways of New York, creating their own food, water and shelter in a demonstration of sustainable technology. The Waterpod visited each borough of New York, hosting events and offering free demonstrations and information to all visitors.

Cool stuff, at least in theory. Apocalypse enthusiasts and Kevin Costner fans alike have long toyed with the idea of living on the water; finally, somebody (one Mary Mattingly) got up the gumption to try it. And as it prepared to launch this spring, everyone from Discover to Inhabitat was singing its praises.

However, by the time I arrived in NY, the project had gotten some mixed press. Questions of the barge’s true sustainability were rampant—and my interest was piqued.

I tried to find information on the technical details via the project’s website, but only found a lot of artist-speak and a long James Joyce quote about water. What was the Waterpod exactly, and was it actually a viable living space—or just a high-concept artpiece created by ambitious amateurs?

The answer, not surprisingly, was a little of both. What I found at the Waterpod was not so much a fully-functioning project as a demonstration of possibility. Maybe it doesn’t work perfectly, but it offers fantastic food for thought and a lot of inspiration.

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Read the rest of The Waterpod: life on a New York boat (883 words)

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: agritourism, alternative, art, biotecture, chickens, citizen science, design, diy, ecotourism, education, energy, energy-efficient, environment, experimental, farming, featured posts, gardening, green building, green living, habitat, New York, organic, permaculture, radical, recycling, reuse, river, solar, starving artists, sustainable, teaching, water

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Reign of Grace cob bathhouse at Dandelion Sustainability Farm

My longtime readers will remember Dandelion Farm (Lower Lake, California), where I had my first WWOOFing experience way back in December. The other day I received this message from them, and thought I’d pass it along for anyone in California who’s interested in natural building.

Candace Stolley writes:

volunteers building Reign of Grace
Photo courtesy of Dandelion Farm

We have just broken ground for our first little cob cabin in Enchanted Encampment…hurrah! So we are planning our first work/party on the 18-21 of Sept (Fri AM to Monday PM).

We ask $25 ($35/ couple) for first time volunteers only for this period to help with food/expenses.

This is also a good time to get to know us and us you to see if a longer stay would work for all sides. Please have other options for after the party…we may be full even before it starts.

USF students at a 2008 work party

Loren and Candace Stolley

If you have not cobbed before (mud and straw building) this will be a great opportunity to experience this building technique that anyone can do, so naturally! We hope if you are musical you will come prepared to entertain the mud fun. The ponds will be refreshing and a good way to get that mud off. Overnight camping will be available. Bring a sun hat, your sleeping bags and pads and a good flashlight!There MAY be indoor space, but you must reserve early with your $25. to be sure of that.

Please email and let us know if you can make it so we have an idea how many to cook for.

We will possibly host more work/parties later to finish the building. If you can’t make this one and wish a later date let us know!

HOPE we get to share the work and fun with you and show you all the progress that your help here has led to!

Warmly,
Candace and Loren

Queen of Heaven Gate at Dandelion Farm

Dandelion Farm is full of incredible metal and natural art. See more photos or visit Dandelion online—or email Candace and Loren to reserve your spot on the work party!

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Post tags: agritourism, biotecture, building, California, cob, community, construction, education, farm, green building, natural, organic, sustainable, training, volunteer, voluntourism, WWOOF

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Most places I visit, I stay a while; Chicago, however, was an exception. I would’ve liked to stay longer: the July sun was high and the neighborhood gardens were flourishing, and it seemed like the perfect time to run around a town I’d heard tons about. Plus, I wanted to hang out with some of my friends from the Rat Patrol. But we had places to go and people to see, and unfortunately they were all to our east.

Still, on my dash through the Windy City, I managed to get a glimpse of some of the things that make it unique. For example: did you know that Chicago’s City Hall has a green roof? I’d heard about it on e2, and been very impressed that a government office would be among the first to adopt such a forward-thinking technology.

Going to downtown Chicago made me realize something more: this is a city packed with incredible architecture. Here, the form of a building can be a cultural statement. City Hall’s roof, then, has a more-than-ecological impact: it’s Chicago’s way of showing support to the cause of sustainability, setting an example for other cities.

I couldn’t see the green roof in person, because there are no visitors allowed (a good idea to protect its ecosystem). So I concentrated more on what normal-folks are doing. I met Dorothee and Mark, from OrganicNation, to talk about our respective projects and future plans. I asked my host Evelina to show off her homegrown sprouts. I visited a couple of urban gardens, and drove out to see the Angelic Organics farm.

Since it was my first time in Chicago, I took a little time out for tourism too. Namely, a cheesy behemoth of a deep-dish pizza that took days to eat and wrecked my stomach and was completely delicious in every way.

All this happened in a couple of short, sunny days, and it’ll be the material for this week’s entries (well, maybe not the pizza). Come back soon to hear about how Chicago does Green.

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: agritourism, biotecture, Chicago, design, ecotourism, energy-efficient, environment, green building, green roof, Illinois, photography, sustainable, tourism, travel

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Ah, the Angel’s Nest. Arguably the most famous “Earthship” in existence, this peach-and-mint confection of modern organic architecture sits close to the highway in the Greater World Community, beckoning visitors with its flashing windmills, bevy of solar panels, turrets, hydrogen/biodiesel Hummer and fire engine parked in the driveway…

Well, it used to anyway.

Nautilus floor plan from earthship.net

This house started out as the Nautilus, a one-bedroom Earthship with a design based on the Fibonnaci spiral. It was small, but beautiful— or so they say. You can see what remains of the Nautilus in the above photo: it’s the round bit at the right side of the house.

Sometime around 2001, the Nautilus was bought by Robert Plarr and Victoria Peters, two self-described idealists who are dedicated to furthering the cause of sustainability. They decided to turn the Nautilus into a showcase of sustainable and eco-friendly technologies, and renamed it Angel’s Nest.

This is generally where the story ends, when you’re talking to an Earthship community member. The Angel’s Nest involved some crew labor, and shares land with the Greater World; people in the community are reluctant to be overly critical of their neighbors. But from what I can piece together, Mr. Plarr and Ms. Peters may not have been playing with a full deck of cards.

photos from angels-nest.org

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Read the rest of The Fallen Angel’s Nest (466 words)

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Springtime in Taos is a lot like winter in most places, except maybe harsher. People are full of stories about it:

“Oh yeah, you’ll be out working in short sleeves and then suddenly there’ll be snow and lightning and then the rest of the day you’re in full-on winter gear.”

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Read the rest of Springtime in Taos, Part II (252 words)

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: biotecture, earthship, earthships, energy-efficient, environment, nature, New Mexico, outdoors, seasons, snow, spring, Taos, volunteer, voluntourism, weather, winter

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R.E.A.C.H. (or “Rural Earthship Alternative Community Habitat” if you favor flavor over brevity) is a PRIVATE community, so don’t just go traipsing up here uninvited— but realistically, you probably couldn’t make it if you wanted to. The roads are only accessible with a 4×4, and then only when the snow isn’t too thick.

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Read the rest of R.E.A.C.H. Earthship Community, a pictorial (661 words)

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© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Bottle Brick Bathroom, originally uploaded by Earthship Kirsten

If you’ve been following my Earthships adventure, you know that it is actually possible to build houses using garbage. Can and bottle walls—literally walls made out of mud or cement, with cans or bottles set like bricks—are one of Mike Reynolds‘ time-tested innovations, a building technique that can have amazingly artistic results.

Can/bottle walls look and act like normal walls, except that they can’t bear heavy loads. They’re much, MUCH faster to build than tire walls, but don’t have the benefit of thermal mass. In Earthships, they’re used for room dividers, garden walls, and other non-load-bearing verticals. You can literally learn how to make one in five minutes; they’re cheap as free and extremely easy to put up. So, here’s how!

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Read the rest of Things I Learned: Can/Bottle Walls (873 words)

© jessicareeder for Uprooted, an eco/travel blog, 2009. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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