Across the Rio Grande Bridge west of Taos is a community that has no power lines or street lights. The "Greater Earth Community" of homes called Earthships sits in a valley of sage brush with views of the mountains in all directions.The people that live here walk the walk when it comes to sustanibility.
Solar energy is used to heat water and the great glass windows face south for passive heating . Water is conserved and used and gathered from rain catchment systems.
These homes are built of cement, old bottles, cans and used tires infused into their cement and mud walls. The craftsman ship is apparent in the new visitors centers windows. That continues inside with uniquely designed rooms.
The tires are filled with soil and compacted. These provide a structure that is strong, durable and create a large thermal mass for heat gain during the winter days.
The bottles and cans don't provide any structural strength, but instead suggest another way to recycle societies waste. The light that filters through them is amazing.
As we walked through a visitor center and a new one being built we were amazed and couldn't help but think its the creative folks like these that are leading the way to the future in thinking about how we live in the homes we build.
More information can be found at this website.
2 comments:
Very interesting. I think I saw a show on tv about this community several years ago. The construction seems labor intensive and expensive but the low op cost for utilities would really be a huge bonus.
Plus using recycled materials such as the glass is very creative also.
i think these are fantastic, would love to live in one of these.
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