Earth Ship has Landed

I got a pretty gnarly kink in my neck today. The only position I can sit comfortably in puts me in front of the t.v. so I chose something educational to watch. The Travel Channel was showing some extreme living desitnations, and amongst them was Greater World outside of Taos, New Mexico.

Greater World is a community where the homes are built entirely out of recyclable materials and uses sustainable utilities. Retaining walls are made out of old tires, siding is made out of used beer bottles, it is really unbelievable. Each of these homes is called an Earthship, besides the fabulous name, it is a fabulous concept. All energy comes from the sun, wind, and earth for electricity, heating & cooling purposes. Water is filtered from the rain.

Besides being a completely sustainable home, that leaves no imprint on the Earth – it is super cute. Beer bottles provide a stained glass effect, clay building creates beautifuly architechural arches, and floor to ceiling windows provides a very open environoment with a lot of light.

Another great feature is that these Earthships can be built in any climate, anywhere! In fact, a group of people brought this method to Haiti to assist in the earthquake disaster relief. What is so cool, is that they aren’t building a temporary shelter for the meantime, Earthships is building a permanent home for these people and a simple, sustainable, building technique that they can continue to use as they rebuild their community.