I recently became aware of earthships, basically a zero-emission, super-sustainable house. Or as the movement itself puts it; “An Earthship is a radically sustainable green building made with recycled materials”. The difference between this and the rest of the sustainable housing concepts, is that this is actually being built, and have been working great for twenty years now, with new technology perfecting it.

What first struck me is the looks of these houses, clearly resembling something from a Moebius panel or other sci-fi classics. Pioneered in the seventies by architect Mike Reynolds, these housing concepts are not only made by recycled materials, they are cheap to make (about $20 000), don’t require too much engineering skills to set up, and are 100% “off the grid”, meaning they don’t require to be hooked up to any outside plumbing, electricity or gas. Price is of course the biggest factor, and when building an earthship is significantly cheaper than a conventional house, there’s no doubt people will join in. Plus you save about $3 000 a year in utilities.

I can’t stop imagining possible uses of my own trade in this, I would love to work with the visual communications in this project, making it less hippie-like and more feasible for, say, a banker, to live in one. Right now you kinda have to put on some dreadlocks to be allowed in, I feel. There is no reason this system shouldn’t be spreading across the globe faster than it already is, and if living sustainable means I get to live in Yoda’s house, count me in. Now I just want to spend the whole summer drawing my dream earthship house. Imagine a whole village of those things!

There’s more information on the project at earthship.org, and lots of niceness both at the green tribe and good. There’s also a youtube channel, and some books.

Related posts:

Legend: Introduction Super sexy CPR Super Science Friends! new inspiration depository Inspiration workout: Primer