I was just reading the solarpunk Wikipedia page[1] and I noticed it mentioned earthships, which I learned about in, I think, 7th grade science class: a house built out of recycled and natural materials which is (almost entirely?) self-sufficient. I then started reading that page too, and now I have some thoughts.
Welcome back to Futurism, a gemlog (Gemini log) sharing commentary on the climate, solarpunk, and our collective future, where we'll hopefully have a "post" climate crisis.
A few months ago, I saw a video talking about someone who passively heated a house based on its angle relative to the Sun. Inspired by that video, I thought up a floor plan for a square house (with a fun hidden library and loft in the middle!), and later drew it out on a sticky note. I think it would have been great mixed with things like rainwater collection and, of course, battery-backed solar power.
(Note to self: put a picture of the sticky note with the floor plan here.)
Today, I re-encountered the concept of earthships, which is a concept which strictly requires six principles be implemented (copied from the Wikipedia page):
1. Building with [only] natural and repurposed materials
2. Thermal or solar heating and cooling
3. Electricity from solar and wind [hydroelectric, if it were practical at this scale, would probably be OK too]
4. Water harvesting
5. Sewage treatment
6. Food production
There do appear to be a few limitations that remain challenging to address, at least as far as I can see. For example, the tire and sandbag wall constructions also mean that earthships will pretty much always be built in a "horseshoe" shape, which also means that every earthship will have a similar floorplan (below).
Image: one such Earthship floorplan.
Original (SVG, HTTPS) link to last linked image.
Some small opinions: I'd want the planters mostly in a hallway, so that they're not hanging over in the bedroom(s). I'd also like to facade the thermal mass; tires don't look pretty, in the slightest.
I'd probably compromise on the building materials, particularly the tire-based thermal mass, and supplement the passive heating with some extra cooling (to keep it in the 60s inside, instead of in the 70s). Depending on what the thermal mass is, I'd like to keep the ability to expand in the future; the tires design, at least, has "wings" so that the house doesn't shift over time, but also it's probably a pain in the ass to deconstruct all of that!
So ultimately, I probably wouldn't build or live in a "real" earthship. Instead, I would probably want to reuse a lot of the techniques and ideas, like the multi-tiered water recycling, the planters that use the house's greywater (I'd put more flowers than food in them, to be honest. The more colorful and diverse, the better), passive heating and cooling (supplemented with some other probably electric system), thermal mass, rainwater collection, and of course solar electric power, all supplemented by public utilities (especially so-called "blackwater" sewage).
The biggest barrier to this, by far, is cost. I'm fucking broke, especially compared to the cost such a building would take. The well-architected Earthships cost $500,000 in land and labor in 2019, according to whoever added that to the Wikipedia article, and seeing as how the price of everything (ESPECIALLY housing!) has gone up, I'd be surprised if the cost of a home following my altered principles DIDN'T vastly exceed $1,000,000!
(I had some tangential comment to make about EVs but now I can't remember it. Oh well.)
Email me about this article: me@blakes.dev (or DeltaChat, or XMPP)
Backup XMPP: blake@federation.quest
P.S. I think with an "active" AC or heating system, I'd want it to only turn on if the battery is above some certain level (or if it can draw from grid power instead), to save power. Even if the heating/AC isn't on, it should stay in the 60s and 70s inside at all times anyway from the thermal mass and passive heating/cooling; the HVAC would be used just to inch it closer to the way I like it. I do concede that this is a luxury though and if it can't be included, it's acceptable as long as the build can guarantee it'll stay within a comfortable temperature range, the way a proper Earthship can.
2P.S. How well do earthships hold up against natural disasters? Tornadoes and earthquakes in particular? What do they have to prevent flooding? In the US, one reason we abuse drywall instead of real concrete walls is because concrete hurts worse than drywall if it falls on you, which it often does in places with earthquakes, hurricanes, and tornadoes. How do these avoid that problem? This is something I'd like you to email me about if you have any leads.
