THE EARTHSHIP

PROJECT

Tim McGee Fundamentals of Sustainable Design Fall 2016

INTRODUCTION

• The Earthship Project will be a nonprofit organization created to provide other nonprofits, business, community organizations, NGOs, and homeless shelters with educational as well as development resources in building Earthships

WHAT IS AN EARTHSHIP?• Earthships are a type of passive solar house that is made

of both natural and upcycled materials such as earth-packed tires and rammed earth.

• Created by architect Michael Reynolds in the 1970s.

 EARTHSHIPS ARE DEFINED BY 6 PRINCIPLES

• ". . . the Earthship is the epitome of sustainable design and construction. No part of sustainable living has been ignored in this ingenious building."

• Thermal/Solar Heating & Cooling• Solar & Wind Electricity • Contained Sewage Treatment • Built with Natural & Recycled Materials • Water Harvesting• Food Production

 SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGE

• PEOPLE: earthships provide a more affordable way for people to live. The upfront costs vary and can cost as much as a conventional home, but they provide ways of living that are more sustainable and don’t contribute to the degradation of the planet

• PLANET: earthships provide alternative ways of living that don’t add to the degradation of the earth. Because they don’t heavily rely on fossil fuels for their production this decreases deforestation and the extraction of virgin materials from earth’s crust. Because they are homes that are made with recycled and upcycled materials they use what has already been created

• PROFIT: earthships can provide a person with carbon credits, tax incentives and a higher resale value for the earthship

• PUBLIC: earthship project caters to nonprofits and community organizations, so the public can access this information as well as the educational opportunities through both. The online open access website will also allow people interested in constructing an earthship the proper resources on how to build an earthship, and how to secure funding to build an earthship, as well as coaching throughout the building process

RECOMMENDATIONS• A building block found all over the globe…• Shipping materials over long distances is not sustainable

and uses excessive amounts of energy. In order for the earthship to be easily accessible to the common person and to maintain a low impact on the planetary energy situation, a "building block" found all over the globe must be implemented 

RECOMMENDATIONS CONT’D

• What could this building block be that most countries have or have the ability to cultivate? • Mycelium: the mass of branched, tubular filaments (hyphae) of fungi. The mycelium makes up

the thallus, or undifferentiated body, of a typical fungus. It may be microscopic in size or developed into visible structures, such as brackets, mushrooms, puffballs, rhizomorphs (long strands of hyphae cemented together), sclerotia (hard, compact masses), stinkhorns, toadstools, and truffles. At a certain stage it produces spores, directly or through special fruiting bodies.

• Bagasse: also called megass , fibre remaining after the extraction of the sugar-bearing juice from sugarcane.

• Bamboo: subfamily of tall treelike grasses of the family Poaceae, comprising more than 115 genera and 1,400 species. Bamboos are distributed in tropical and subtropical to mild temperate regions, with the heaviest concentration and largest number of species in East and Southeast Asia and on islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans.

CITATIONS • Earthship.org • Encyclopedia Britannica - Mycelium, bagasse, bamboo