On the desert mesa of New Mexico, miles from the nearest town of Taos
(pop. 5,700), Star-Wars-like shelters rise from the earth, half-buried
and covered in adobe. Called “Earthships” - brainchild of architect Mike
Reynolds in the 1970s- they’re nearly completely self-sufficient homes:
no electrical grid, no water lines, no sewer.
The Greater World Earthship Community, about 70 passive solar homes
built from earth and trash on 633 acres, had a rough start; they were
shut down as an illegal subdivision in 1997 and it took them 7 years to
come to compliance.
Though today, the county fully cooperates with
Reynolds and his Earthship Biotecture operation to turn trash (tires,
cans, glass bottles) into shelters and has even given them 2 acres to
experiment with housing in anyway they like (they also provide their
recycling).
Sixteen years ago, Tom Duke had just finished over a decade on the pro
volleyball circuit when he bought a bit of land here with his wife and
began to build a tiny Earthship the size of a storage shed.
When their
first son was born they built their dream house on the property, a two
bedroom that, like other Earthships, collects rainwater, uses its water
four times (the plants in the indoor greenhouse filter the greywater)
and even processes its own sewage.
In this video, Tom takes us on a tour of his home, his original
“Earthship survival pod”, the “nest” ($50,000 studio apartment), the
“Simple Survival Earthship” (aimed mainly at the developing world), a
custom home designed to feed a family of four (including a tilapia pond
in the greenhouse) and the “BMW of Earthships”, the “Global" (aimed at
the typical American family).
