March 2023 – Tahlia
Over the past few years, many have left urban areas for larger homes and more land in rural areas in response to the pandemic. This shift seems to have gone hand-in-hand with a renewed interest in off-grid living, using reclaimed materials, and increased self-sufficiency.
Earthships are an off-grid living option that I’ve always had a curiosity for, they’re a great example of creative reuse, which we love to see here at The Junk Map. Earthships use recycled materials like tyres and bottles in the construction of a passive solar, self-sufficient house. With their curved walls and earth berms, Earthships look like something out of a fairy tale or the Hobbit. The concepts may seem too extreme for some people but by bringing elements of these structures into existing builds we may be able to lower our energy bills and lessen our impact on the environment.
I spoke with Rachel Goldlust from Earthship Australia about how she’s seen the Earthship movement evolve over the last decade and her exciting venture into a nationwide platform connecting the community, natural building resources and businesses.
In this blog post, I’ll explore what Earthships are and how Natural Building Australia plans to help everyday Aussies build greener with earth-based solutions.
If you’ve never heard of an Earthship, it’s not your typical house. It’s a self-sustainable, eco-friendly, off-grid dwelling that utilises natural and recycled materials. They’re an innovative solution to living sustainably and have been evolving since the 70s when architect, Mike Reynolds built the first prototype made primarily of cans.
Reynold’s story echoes many builders, carpenters, and salvage yard owners we’ve interviewed here on The Junk Map. Reynolds trained as an architect before becoming disillusioned with the wastefulness of traditional architecture and began experimenting with alternative building materials and techniques.
In the 1970’s Reynolds moved to Taos, New Mexico where he started to develop the concept of Earthships. The first build, known as the Thumb House, was made of beer can building blocks held together with wire.
As discussions around solar energy evolved in the 70s, new designs were adapted to store more thermal mass which we still see in these off-grid houses today. The indoor greenhouse windows are oriented to the south for maximum solar exposure to heat the house (in the northern hemisphere). This heat is stored as thermal energy in dense tyre walls at the rear of the house. During construction, the tyres are packed with dirt and compounded until hard like a brick as they’re stacked. The passive solar design aims to maintain a temperature of 15-21°C in desert conditions, the climate in New Mexico where Earthships were designed fluctuates between -33 to 37 °C.
Years of trial and error followed while building a community seeking an earth-friendly, affordable housing solution including persistent negotiations with council.
The Earthship Biotecture company has since built hundreds of Earthships around the world and teaches people how to build autonomous, off-grid houses through the Earthship Academy.
Three principles sit at the core of Earthship design:
Earthships are designed to be completely self-sustaining, with their own solar power, greenhouse, water collection and sewage treatment systems. They’re built with a focus on thermal mass for passive solar design, which means the temperature is regulated naturally, without the need for heating or cooling systems.
The architecture of an Earthship is characterized by several key features:
Earthships are built with a system for harvesting rainwater, which is then stored in cisterns. Water is captured from the roof and funnelled into a cistern. The water is systematically used first for drinking and washing, the grey water is then cycled to the indoor greenhouse (when council permits). The water then travels from the plants to the toilet, when the toilet is flushed the black water is routed to a modified septic. Bacteria breaks down the waste making it suitable for a lined outdoor garden. This helps to conserve water and reduce reliance on traditional water resources.
The large amount of thermal mass is a key part of this off-grid design which helps to regulate the temperature inside the home. This is achieved by using materials like earth-packed tyres, which absorb and retain heat from the sun (optimized by the aspect of the build) during the day and release it at night.
Sand, soil and rock are built up against the tyre wall to create an earth berm. Pipes known as earth air tubes are installed through the earth berm that cool air as it travels through and vents into the house to regulate the temperature.
Husband and wife team, Tristan and Shiner, demonstrate how well this works in their YouTube series on the progress of their off-grid home in Jurien Bay, Western Australia.
Earthships rely on renewable energy sources such as solar panels and wind turbines to provide electricity. This allows them to operate completely off-grid and reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
The use of locally sourced recycled or salvaged materials helps to reduce waste and lower the environmental impact of the building process.
One of the most iconic features of these off-grid homes is the Instagram worthy indoor greenhouse. The greenhouse is a greywater-fed planter to grow fruit and vegetables.
I reached out to Earthship Australia about an online webinar and Rachel Goldlust kindly agreed to have a chat about the state of off-grid living and all things sustainable building in Australia, including her next venture.
Rachel’s first introduction to Earthships and sustainable architecture was in 2006 while travelling in the UK. There was a community project in Brighton which was one of the first Earthship projects outside the US.
After coming back to Australia and completing a planning degree, her interest in Earthships was re-ignited when she attended a presentation by Mike Reynolds. Reynolds had been bought out to Australia to talk about Earthships and post-bushfire reconstruction after the Black Saturday bushfires. The concept makes a lot of sense in our environment, when half the structure is built into the earth, only the front facia needs to be rebuilt if damaged by fire.
Natural Building Australia
For most people, the idea of living off-grid or using natural building methods seems way out of reach and wouldn’t know where to start.
Rachel’s current project is Natural Building Australia, which is a directory and events website. It will be a place where the community can log their events and list related businesses. People planning to build their own Earthship can raise awareness about the project and find volunteers willing to labor in exchange for first hand learning and experience.
Currently, most workshops and volunteering opportunities in this industry are communicated by word of mouth or become buried in social media posts. There’s a barrier for people without digital skills and those not already connected to the community, with many people not finding out about events before it’s too late.
The site will be divided into categories so that events, resources and businesses can be found easily. Information will be organised by material type (straw, hemp etc), by state and by time.
This way when people have planned time off they can easily find workshops or volunteer opportunities that align with their availability.
*Currently, this website is undergoing a crowdfunding campaign to get it up and running. If you would like to contribute there are some great discounted membership deals available here available until the end of March.
Empowering Owner-Builders :
Confidence and lack of knowledge or experience can be one of the biggest hurdles when someone sets out with the intention to build a non-conventional home.
Natural Building Australia aims to give people the confidence to take on a bit more ownership over their projects, by sharing knowledge through podcasts, workshops and online courses from industry experts and those with firsthand experience.
Builders are in heavy demand in Australia and because of the professionalization of the building industry, we’re told there are so many things we can’t do. By sharing these resources, Natural Building Australia hopes to change people’s mindset so that they can safely contribute to the build if they are willing to learn and have a go.
One of the main concepts behind Earthships is simple assembly that puts some of the construction back in the owners’ hands, resulting in a lower cost to build. Again, just look at the incredible job that Tristin and Shiner are doing with their off-grid home. The couple had their Earthship plans reviewed and adapted by the natural building specialists from Earthship Ecohomes and have completed the construction themselves with no prior building experience.
Natural Builders
Most natural builders have a certification either as registered builders or carpenters and have then done a traineeship through the Earthship Academy which is partnered with Colorado University. Natural building work may be more sporadic compared to working as a conventional builder who has continual work throughout the year, but they choose to work in this industry because they find it so much more satisfying.
Builders who work in this industry tend to be values-driven, finding that there is nothing more rewarding than helping owner-builders who are actively involved in the construction of their homes.
Experience off-grid living in Australia at EarthBnB Ironbank, SA. Image credit: earthshipecohomes.com.au
The biggest hurdle for building Earthships in Australia is getting council approval. Martin Freney of Earthship Ecohomes was the first to get approval in Australia.
Rachel, who has worked both as a planner and in government positions, has seen how the system doesn’t facilitate these kinds of builds. The building code system doesn’t recognize many elements of passive solar design. For example, insulation ratings are tied to prefabricated materials, not thermal mass or earth. Passive solar houses struggle to meet the ratings on paper even though they work just as well and can be shown to perform at 7 or 8 stars but the building code has been set up to preference man-made materials.
Freney’s Earthship in South Australia was originally built with the exception of approval for the wastewater system so that component was installed but not commissioned. However, the wastewater codes were later reviewed and the indoor greywater use was approved.
Despite these difficulties, there are Earthships all over Australia, some can be rented via AirBnb or open for occasional walkthroughs while others are private.
Where have Earthships been built in Australia?
How Natural Building and Earthship Concepts can be used in Renovation and Existing Dwellings
Many of us aren’t in the market for building a new home, nor ready to challenge our local councils on getting a non-conventional house approved. However, existing structures can also benefit from incorporating elements of passive solar design.
In the next article, I’ll be sharing how many of the principles of Earthship design have been used in a more conventional build.
*If you would like your home featured on The Junk Map to showcase its creative reuse of recycled materials please reach out via the contact page! We would love to hear from you.
**Image credits to EarthshipBiotecture.com unless otherwise stated.
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