In December 2020, in one of my first forays into the world since the pandemic hit nearly a year earlier, my partner and I drove to Taos, New Mexico to visit Earthship Greater World Community. Having spent time in New Mexico in the 1990s and had anthropologist friends who had done ethnographic fieldwork within New Age communities in Taos, I was familiar with Earthships but had never seen one up close. We thought it was a pretty safe way to do a short vacation against COVID, so we embarked on our adventure.
What is an Earthship? According to the Earthship Global website, which is the group that runs the Earthship Community in Taos, including the rental we stay in, an Earthship is: “A type of house built with natural and recycled materials with energy conservation in mind. It is designed to produce water, electricity, and food for their own use. Earth ships have six basic design principles“all of which take advantage of the natural phenomena existing on earth”:
BUILDING WITH NATURAL AND REUSED MATERIALS
THERMAL/SOLAR HEATING AND COOLING
SOLAR AND WIND ELECTRICITY
WATER HARVEST
CONTAINED WASTEWATER TREATMENT
FOOD PRODUCTION
The concept and design principles for Earthships and the Earthship community at Taos Earthship were conceived and executed by architect Michael Reynolds, who came to Taos in 1969 after graduating from architecture school. global earthship describes the beginning of the Earthship movement:
Inspired by television news about the litter problem and the lack of affordable housing, Michael created the “tin brick” from discarded steel and tin cans. Ten empty cans, four flat and six uncrushed, were wired together to form a building block.
Early buildings used discarded tin or steel beer cans (this was before recycling existed). These cans were empty and simply used as space-free units with which to form strong, lightweight concrete walls. These “junk” houses immediately began to receive press coverage, although they were not as sophisticated as the Earthships of today. Garbage is now all over the world, especially tires, highly available and highly harmful to the environment when left in nature.
Over the next decade, designs steadily evolved to incorporate thermal mass, passive solar, and natural ventilation. The houses we now build with rammed earth tires are so strong that no foundations are required, giving load-bearing walls and thermal mass storage. Solar glazing along the entire front of the structure allows the sun to heat the floors and walls providing comfortable and stable temperatures inside without using fossil fuels or wood. Operable windows and skylights provided natural ventilation to cool the buildings.
There are now about 60 households that are part of the Earthship Greater World Community, located outside of Taos, NM. the website describes the community as “the largest off-grid legal subdivision in the world.” There is space for a total of 130 homes:
The members of the community are owners of their land, freehold. There are approximately 60 houses in the community at this time. Members own lots ranging in size from 0.75 acres to 3 acres. More than half of the total land is in common ownership. This 347-acre “green belt” will never be built. The community is exclusively Earthship houses. There is a Board of Directors that enforces the Land Users Code. Annual dues to the community are currently $150 for road maintenance and the community improvement fund. Property taxes are assessed by Taos County.
Earthship Global also runs a variety of workshops on how to build Earthships, has a visitors Center where you can learn all about Earthships, and has some Earthships available for rent if you’re curious about what it’s like to live in one. The Earthship we stayed in was amazing. I felt like I was on another planet! They are literally built out of garbage: discarded tires, glass bottles, and more. It’s pretty amazing how artistic and creative the designs are, and really cool that they’re all self-contained and capable of generating clean water, fresh air, electricity, and more, all off the grid. According to the University of California at Boulder Environmental Center:
Earthships provide their own electricity through photovoltaics (which convert light into electricity) and wind power. They contain and treat their own wastewater. They capture water and can even act as indoor greenhouses to grow food, treating the water at the same time.
If you’re looking for a cool place to stay and learn about off-the-grid ways of life, I highly recommend staying at an Earthship!
