This Earthship is the Ultimate Self-Sufficient Urban Home!

when it comes to radically Alternative architecture one of my absolute favorite types has to be the Earth Ship and I think that's because in a way building an Earth Ship is almost an act of rebellion Rebellion against trash Rebellion against wastefulness Rebellion against convention and here in South Australia we are about to see a perfect example of all of that brought to [Music] life [Music] hi Amy how are you hey hey V I'm good how are you I'm very good thank you it is so nice to meet you and wow your home is just so beautiful yeah thank you I'm pretty proud of it as you should be I think every time I see an Earth Ship I just fall more and more in love with them mhm they're pretty amazing um buildings and it's nice to be able to have actioned one in a Suburban setting and kind of just follow my dream and what was it that made you want to build a their ship well I was um working in Nicaragua as a volunteer coordinator for a program and we built a school using plastic bottles so we'd have three lit plastic bottles that we'd collect in a rubbish and recycling program and just fill them with sand and soft Plastics at the beach so I spent hours and hours and hours filling these bottles with soft Plastics and sand alongside young kids alongside older members of the community and then we use those bottles to build them as bricks for the school and what I loved about that method was that everyone could be involved so it was like the young it was the old and it wasn't a hard building method so that it meant that you didn't have to have school trades to be involved in that build and then I was like wow you can build out of trash that's cool so then I followed Earth ships for quite a long time and I decided to go to New Mexico T to do the Earth Ship Academy there and when I came back to Australia I was said I'd love to action my dream I'd love to be able to do this and then I was so blessed because in South Australia we have the guru of Earth ships who is Martin Frey I believe been on your show already he yeah and so he really was the person that was able to help me make this Earth Ship a reality and it was a community Workshop build for this one too wasn't it yeah so we had over 40 um volunteers from around Australia joined me in February 2021 for a whole month I love that because of course that is one of the things about Earth ship building that it is so labor intensive isn't it yeah it is and what size is the Earth Ship so my square footage is about 130 M squared and a two-bedroom Earth Ship with an open living area plus the space in the greenhouse as well and obviously Earth ships they're sort of an experiment and radically sustainable architecture can you tell me about the design that's gone into this home yeah so there has been a lot of design features a lot of them have come from Michael Reynolds so the architect for Earth ships over in New Mexico he has worked for over 30 years to kind of refine the design of Earth ships and how they work most efficiently and then Marty here in Australia has been able to put his own own take on that so we can make it suitable for an Australian climate so my Earth ship has a lot of the features that Michael Reynolds has in his traditional Earth Ship and it's been helped to climatize to the Australian environment so one of the main features of the Earth Ship is the use of recycled car tires so in my Earth Ship I've got over 900 car tires that I myself rescued from landfill so the way that the tire Wall Works is that you have a big tire and you put carpet in the bottom so the carpet is what stops any of the Earth from falling that hole in the bottom of the tire then you get Buckets and buckets of Earth and you put that Earth into the tire you stand above the tire and you have a sledgehammer and then you are sledging that Earth into the outside rim of the tire so that it expands and becomes a rubber reinforced rammed Earth brick and when you lay them in the same way that you would lay a regular brick wall and you're ramming them it becomes a really solid wall that you have to be able to build your house on so behind that tire wall uh is something called an earth burm and the Earth BM is essentially a large Earth Hill and you're utilizing Mother Nature's beautiful sustainable Earth temperature to be able to regulate the temperature of the um inside of your own house the way that that works is uh it's like a hug I imagine the Earth BM is what's hugging my house so when someone hugs you you get warm when the earth BM is hugging my house it's warming my house and keeping that temperature regular the Earth BM also has a feature where the cooling tubes can run through them so the cooling tubes are PVC pipes and they run all the way through the Earth BM starting from the outside and then coming to the inside of my house and that's essentially my air conditioner so the way that that works is that the air from the outside comes through the cooling tubes and whatever temperature on the outside the air is it gets changed to the stable temperature of the Earth as it passes through that tube so then inside I can choose whether or not I want to open or close those cooling tubes and then the cold air comes out another feature of the Earth Ship is the greenhouse at the front so the Earth ships always face North in south southern hemisphere and having it facing north means I get the most amount of sun coming through my windows in the winter and the least amount of sun coming through the windows in the summer so it's kind of that you know sensible Mak sense the design of utilizing what you can in that area when I have that warmth coming in I can choose if I want to let it out by opening the awning window so that works as well with the cooling tube so I've got the cool air coming through it mixes in with the air temperature inside the house the hot air rises and then that hot air is what gets sucked out of the awning windows so it creates this kind of cycle where you're pulling in the cold air and sucking out the hot air just through the design of the house those passive systems are just so clever eh yeah they really are and of course you're off the grid with this home as well I am off the grid with this home yes so I have two rainwater tanks which is all of the water that I need for the house I have my own septic system that gets managed on site the back Earth BM of the Earth Ship as well uh has functioned as an area for where the gray water can be dispersed in and that we're hoping is kind of turbocharging the cooling tubes because the Earth above the cooling tubes is always wet uh and then therefore it's going to make the Earth cooler so that the air coming through is also cooler this is the first Earth Ship that's been able to utilize the burm for its Wastewater management so I am totally Off the Grid now and I have all my own energy so I've got solar panels on the North facing side of my roof which is providing all the energy that I need for the house which works really well that's just so clever and I think one of the things that always amazes me about Earth ships is the way that you can build all of that function into a home and it can still be so beautiful at the same time yeah thank you it's been a really big Journey kind of discovering what my Earth Ship is going to become I had a dream for so long that I wanted an Earth Ship and then was a privilege to act in that dream and I feel really proud and happy about it well this home is just so clever and I am so excited to see the inside can we take a look yes please I'd love to show you come on in thank you this is incredible and having the greenhouse like this just makes such an incredible feature for the home doesn't it it does it's really such a blessing to walk inside and just feel all this green all this light around me and it's always warm so again it feels like I'm being hugged by the house when I come in yeah and I love that it's productive too yeah yeah I mean I've got a lot to learn about gardening still I'm still in that process but I have had tomatoes all year round and that has been lovely to be able to pick them yeah and this also acts like a hallway for the home doesn't it yeah it does so the greenhouse is what connects all of the rooms and it's also the buffer zone for the temperature so if it was a really really hot day and the greenhouse was getting too hot all I would need to do would be to close all the doors and windows for the secondary living area section and that area area stays really really temperate and cool as need be yeah perfect and you've set it up with the lounge chair and the breakfast bar as well yeah it's a really I wanted to make sure that I could really live out here and have lots of living spaces so yeah having breakfast sitting at the breakfast bar is pretty beautiful I also have two cats and my cats love the greenhouse it's definitely their favorite space in the house lots to see as they want to look out at the community through all of those big glass windows and one of the things that I just always love about Earth ships and it's so wonderfully featured in this home is the bottle walls yeah the bottle walls are very special it's a really iconic feature of Earth ships so I had a friend who was an artist and she took it on board to create design and actually build all of my bottle walls with me so I wanted to do a sunflower with the oranges and the yellows so to do that we had to do a few trial and error but what we found was if we got a clear glass bottle I was able to put a little bit of resin in the bottom with a color so then when that set it meant that the Sun could shine through it and that's how I got the bright colors of the sunflower on one side of the house and then also I thought well if we're doing lots of colors I may as well showcase that I can do a rainbow so we've designed a rainbow star on the sunrise side of the house which is pretty special that is just so beautifully done and of course immediately upon entering the home you've got a spare room yes I do I love having a spare room because lots of people have been coming to visit I love sharing the Earth Ship having meals here and because I had so many people involved in the community build for the workshop it's really special to have them come and visit now that it's not just a pile of tires and Earth on the ground I've got a fully functioning house one of the things that I also really love about Earth Ship design is the floors these are just so nicely done so my floor is um just my slab and then I've put a special coating over it to protect it but having the thermal mass of my slab directly as my floor means that it warms up and keeps the house warm or or it's cool as well so I also did something special with my Foundation it's called a straw bale waffle pod that's another feature of straw bales being in the waffle pod of my slab I just love that name too a straw bale waffle pod yes it's pretty cool it sure is it's so nice and through here we have the main living area of your home can we take a look at that yeah sure I'd love to show you come on in thank you this is just so nice and cozy there's something about Earthship design with all of the Open Glass on the front side and then all of the Earth to the back that almost has that sort of like cozy cave kind of feeling doesn't it yeah that's a really nice way of putting it so the big double glazed windows at the front of the greenhouse as well as the windows in the secondary area that come into the main room bring so much light and so much warmth in um it's a really beautiful thing to also watch the light change throughout the day for that morning Sunrise colors as well as the sunset colors that come through yeah and we've got this lovely very open planed kitchen and living room yeah I wanted to have just one room that was kind of the center heart of the house to have that kitchen living and dining area all together really makes it feel nice it certainly does with the wonderful fireplace right in the center yeah that's right I do have the fireplace right in the center but actually I haven't needed to use it so it's more more of a feature of it looking nice and these here are the cooling tubes and you've made a real artistic feature of them as well yeah so this is where the cooling tubes come in into my house it was again a design by Marty and another friend um who was working with me on the Earthship to have this kind of ying yang feature so I can choose to open them all the way if it's quite hot in here and I want to let the cold air in or if it's only halfway I can choose to have half a ying-yang open or if it's quite cool in here and I want to start raising the temperature I just close that cooling tube completely off fantastic and the lounge area looks really comfortable a large Corner Lounge so I have lots lot of friends that come over when I can do entertaining the coffee table as well I had a local gentleman who was really interested in the Earth Ship and all the design principles he had his own saw meal so he gifted me with this huge slab of Cypress Pine Timber to be able to utilize for my coffee table which was amazing and then a week later he came back with three more slabs CU he said he wanted the tree to be together in the house so I've been able to utilize them as the breakfast bar and the areas in the kitchen for shelving what a gift it was a beautiful gift yeah and with the kitchen I love the way that it's all designed around this wonderful Center Island yeah the island bench is pretty large and I wanted to have a lot of bench space for entertaining for friends to be coming and also to be this yeah the heart the feeling that you can have those good conversations around it I had a friend who is a skilled Carpenter his family rescued some red gum Timber 30 years ago and then he said Amy if you'd like to use it for your house we'd love you to use it and it's really turned out beautifully I'm very proud of it it sure has and you've got some great friends I do I'm very lucky and there's plenty of storage space in here as well I've got a lot of storage space in the kitchen which is great I've got lots of empty shelves at the moment so I could be still filling them and I do have a great pantry and The Pantry Shelf design was also done by same friend who did the kitchen bench top it was a bit of a challenge because the back part of my wall although this area is really rendered smooth here the inside the pantry I left a lot more curves which is showing the truth of the house which is the car tires so he had to scribe out all of those back shelves so that it fit neatly in there but it's worked really well and is very functional tricky work yes and just through the door there you've got the laundry as well yeah yeah so just a small little laundry with a washing machine and a laundry sink a functional space to be able to keep those things in there brilliant and can we take a look in the bathroom yeah sure follow me all right this is a wonderfully spacious bathroom and wow what a nice hot tub yes I have been really lucky having quite a large bathroom and the bath was definitely a luxury it sure is and again beautifully finished in here with lovely tile work yeah the tiles for me was a great adventure because I didn't yet have a Tyler who was going to be on board helping me and I had a man who just lived across the road that came to me and said I'm a Tyler do you need Tyler I can start next week and I was like yes please yeah and what luck with that as well just have a tray walk up to you like that that never happens and again the bottle walls in here just make for such a beautiful feature yeah I do love the bottle walls we designed this one kind of around a mandala so wanting to have that circular feel and there is really beautiful features on some of the bottom of the bottles they say encouraging words like love hope peace kindness things like that oh that's so lovely and you've got a flushing toilet in this home in the design of my home I decided to go with a flushing toilet because I am utilizing the rest of my waste water through the gray water planter beds and reusing it in different ways I decided to just go with a regular flushing toilet fair enough too and next door we've got your bedroom can we take a look at that yeah sure follow me all right watch out for the banana hello Zary ah cat looks very comfortable there yeah they love being in the Earth Ship I bet and again this room just has so much charm that can only come from earn walls and renders yeah thank you I do love my bedroom so the back wall that I have at my bedroom here is the Tie wall and we've um rendered that smooth with a cob render so that's sand clay uh and straw all mixed together and then put on the wall we had a white clay render with an oxide color finish so that I could get the color that I wanted for this back tie wall my side walls are actually a straw Bell wall so I decided to have two straw Bell ends of my house instead of the regular car tires uh and that was because of the size of my block so it's been nice to trial that in that our Earth Ship here um to have straw Bell meeting up with cartie and have it work really well brilliant and on the in wall here as well you've been able to sculpt in these wonderful little alcoves I have yeah those little niches were fun to make just getting a chainsaw going into the straw bar wall and then using that clay to really create the shape that I'd like my cats actually love it up there too so often she'll be jumping up so that she can look over and see everything cuz she's high up in the wall um there was one time though that I had a pot plant in there and she didn't realize and she jumped up and then went ah you know there's something there and then scrambled down the wall so that is you know the challenge of having uh an earn wall is that it can fall away or come apart but also the beauty is that I can just mix up a bit more render and Patch it up and that explains why it's empty as well and that's why that one's empty yes there you go and you've got the Wardrobe here as well yeah I do have a little wardrobe here it's been good to be able to hang all of my clothes and have a good storage space yeah and your bedroom as well also has access to the bathroom through this door but one of the things that I love about the design of the Earth Ship is how everything is connected through that walkway and so every room has the feature of the greenhouse that's correct so it's really pretty special to be waking up in the morning and looking out and seeing the banana tree straight out my window yeah so you've been living in the home for about 2 years now how's life working out for you in the Earthship yeah it's been wonderful thank you it was such a big building process that really when I finally got to be in the house and living in it it was very very special and it's performing well it's functioning perfectly I feel really happy and excited every time that I get to come home so now that it's finished I'm kind of known as Earthship Amy and that's a special thing as well for me for my Earth Ship to be my home and to be able to call it my home is really pretty special it's the first and only home probably that I'm ever going to have myself and to know that I've been part of that build and I've known every step of the way and needed to make all those decisions really is pretty amazing to wake up in my own house and know that I remember you know that part of the wall because I rendered that or I have a lovely feeling about when we did this part of the house because I had all of my friends around me I feel very blessed I feel so blessed to be waking up in the Earth Ship to have the Sun come straight in to have the plants around me to have the cats enjoying living here with me so I feel happy and I feel warm and I feel excited every time I look around and remember who it was that helped me with that particular feature of the house and can we talk about the cost that was involved in building this home sure so an Earthship really is of similar kind of cost as a regular house I suppose I did have a lot of friends that helped in terms of that Workshop build and a lot of friends that used their skills to be able to help me complete the house so the building of the home cost 350,000 that was also being built during the time of Co so when all of the building materials the prices were quite inflated during that time of course so I was hopeful that it would be less but I was also just really pleased that it um was able to happen I was able to action my dream absolutely and I still think that's a great price for such a beautiful quality of home and as you say one of the cever things about Earthship designs is once you've got all these systems in place the actual cost of maintaining the home is very minimal yeah you're correct so that's really a special feature of it and feels very freeing to know that those upfront costs are done now and it's really going to be very minimal maintenance yeah and with the home all finished now what does the future hold for you well I'm not sure at the moment feels like it's the beginning of the next season so I'm really lucky that I get to work at the local high school which is just a 10-minute walk away from the Earth Ship I love being with youth and working in kind of bush Adventure therapy so I've just done a big outdoor adventure in the northern Flinders Rangers taking those high school students away with me I do love travel so I feel like I'll be a to do a little bit more travel but the special thing is knowing I have this Earth Ship to come home to that the Earthship exists I was able to action my dream and really that I get to share it with more people will be pretty special absolutely well this is just such a clever and feature packed home that you've built yourself you should be immensely proud of this design thank you so much for sharing it with me thank you Bryce thanks so much for coming I'm glad to share it my pleasure I love absolutely everything about Earth ships I love the cleverness of their design I love the passive systems I love the resilience that they represent I love the clever utilization of resources and beyond all of that I love their beauty and just how well they function as homes what Amy has created here is a perfect example of all of that put into practice and wow what a space she has [Music] made now

Channel: Living Big In A Tiny House

Views: 443,436

Keywords: earthship, natural building, self sufficient, living big in a tiny house, sustainable home, earth home, architecture, home design, small home, earthship tour, home tour

Id: r31XymzJ7aA

Length: 21min 33sec (1293 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 15 2023