In December 2020, in certainly one of my first forays into the world for the reason that pandemic had hit nearly a 12 months earlier, my associate and I drove to Taos, New Mexico, to go to the Earthship Better World Neighborhood. As a result of I had frolicked in New Mexico in the Nineteen Nineties and had anthropologist buddies who had completed ethnographic fieldwork inside New Age communities in Taos, I was conversant in Earthships however had by no means seen one up shut. We figured it was a reasonably COVID-safe strategy to do a brief trip, so we took off on our journey.

What’s an Earthship? In keeping with the web site for Earthship International, which is the group that runs the Earthship Neighborhood in Taos, together with the rental we stayed in, an Earthship is: “A kind of home constructed with pure and recycled supplies with power conservation in thoughts. It’s designed to provide water, electrical energy, and meals for its personal use.” Earthships have six primary design ideas, “all of which reap the benefits of the present pure phenomena of the earth”:

BUILDING WITH NATURAL AND REpurposed MATERIALS

Thermal/photo voltaic HEATING AND COOLING

SOLAR AND WIND ELECTRICITY

WATER HARVESTING

CONTAINED SEWAGE TREATMENT

FOOD PRODUCTION

The idea and design ideas for Earthships, and the Earthship group in Taos Earthship had been conceived and executed by architect Michael Reynolds, who got here to Taos in 1969 after graduating from structure faculty. Earthship International describes the start of the Earthship motion:

Impressed by tv information tales about the issue of trash and the dearth of reasonably priced housing, Michael created the “can brick” out of discarded metal and tin cans. Ten empty cans, 4 flat and six unflattened, had been wired collectively to make a constructing block.

The early buildings used discarded metal or tin beer cans (this was earlier than recycling existed). These cans had been empty and merely used as free models of area with which to type mild, robust concrete partitions. These properties constructed from “rubbish” instantly began getting press protection although they weren’t practically as refined and the Earthships of at this time. Rubbish is now throughout the globe, particularly tires, extremely accessible and extremely damaging to the surroundings when left in the character.

Over the following decade, designs continuously advanced to include thermal mass, passive photo voltaic and pure air flow. The homes we now construct with earth rammed tires are so robust that no basis is required, giving load bearing partitions and thermal mass storage. Photo voltaic glazing alongside the entire entrance of the construction permits the solar to warmth the flooring and the partitions offering comfy, secure temperatures inside with out utilizing fossil fuels or wooden. Operable home windows and skylights supplied pure air flow to chill the buildings.

There at the moment are round 60 properties which can be a part of the Earthship Better World Neighborhood, positioned exterior of Taos, NM. The web site describes the group as “the world’s largest off-grid, authorized subdivision.” There’s room for a complete of 130 properties:

Neighborhood members personal their land, price easy. There are roughly 60 properties in the group these days. Members personal tons which fluctuate in measurement from .75 acres to three acres. Greater than half of the overall land is owned in widespread. This 347 acre “inexperienced belt” isn’t to be constructed upon. The group is solely Earthship properties. There’s a Board of Administrators who implement the Land Person’s Code. Annual dues for the group are at present $150 for street upkeep and the group enchancment fund. Property taxes are assessed by Taos County.

Earthship International additionally teaches quite a lot of workshops on the way to construct Earthships, has a customer’s middle the place you’ll be able to study all about Earthships, and has a couple of Earthships accessible to hire out in case you’re interested in what it’s like to stay in one. The Earthship we stayed in was unbelievable. I felt like I was on another planet! They’re fairly actually constructed with trash—discarded tires, glass bottles, and extra. It is fairly superb how inventive and artistic the designs are, and actually cool that they’re all self-contained and in a position to generate clear water, contemporary air, electrical energy, and extra, all off the grid. In keeping with UC Boulder’s Environmental Heart:

Earthships present their very own electrical energy by way of photovoltaics (changing mild into electrical energy) and wind energy. They comprise and deal with their very own waste water. They catch water and may even act as inside greenhouses to develop meals, treating the water on the identical time.

If you happen to’re searching for a cool place to remain and find out about off-grid methods of residing, I extremely advocate you go keep in an Earthship!