Jill and the Bean Sprout

Earthship Biotecture

Taos, New Mexico

Earlier this year Ollie and I went on a trip to the US of A. We explored the western half of the country. The reason for our holiday was Ollie participating in the Tour Divide bike race. The race starts in Banff, Canada and finished in Antelope Wells, New Mexico. I know, its a long way. So that took him a while which meant I had some spare time up my sleeve before picking him up at the end of the race. I took the opportunity to visit a friend from New Zealand, Rosa Henderson. She was (and I believe still is) living and working at the Earthship community in Taos, New Mexico.

What is Earthship? Mike Reynolds is an architect who in the (1970’s) started the organisation Earthship Biotecture. The company designs and builds houses that are off the grid, constructed from a combination of recycled and new materials. Earthship also runs an education program referred to as ‘The Academy’. People who are interested in Earthship have the option to do an internship where they live and work in the community as volunteer labourers for a stint of time, or they can join the academy where they will attend educational classes teaching about the systems and processes used in building earthships.

My friend Rosa was an academy student. I had the pleasure of staying in an Earthship during my four day visit. I also had the amazing opportunity to accompany Rosa on a tour of other Earthships in the community. Photos I took during the tour with Rosa’s class are below.

Conditions in Taos are very dry. It is extremely hot in the summer and extremely cold in the winter. Earthships are partly submerged under earth. The front is glazed and generally has a planting area for an inside garden. Grey water is pumped through the planter to bring moisture to the plants and filter the water. The water is then sent to the toilet where it is used for flushing. Black water is treated outside the house where it is again used to water plants. Solar panels are used to generate electricity. The heating and cooling of the building is remarkable, or lack of it. It was June when I visited Earthship, almost midsummer. Temperatures were in the mid to high 30’s (Celsius). But inside an Earthship, with no air conditioning, it was comfortably cool.

There are so many awesome things about the buildings, I could rave about them forever. I’m not going to though, because more than the Earthships, the people and environment are what made my visit to Taos so memorable. When I first arrived in the evening I’d barely said hello to Rosa and we were out the door to a dinner party down the road with some fellow academy students. There was great food, musicians playing and people practising acrobatic silks. The next night an acro yoga class had been organised which was followed by more food and music. Then a group trip into town the next evening for a community festival that was happening. Always people were socialising, happy in the surrounding company and so eager to listen and share of themselves. It felt, after four days, like I was part of this big family.

In the dessert, I had previously felt keenly aware of the dangers this landscape can offer, mostly the heat, dehydration and the challenge of large distances between civilisation. Now I felt awed by its beauty. I realised that even in this dessert, where I would have thought only sage brush and dust could endure, people have developed a way of living that doesn’t put unrealistic demands on the environment. In fact it returns more to the environment than it takes.

Visiting Earthship was inspiring and thought provoking. I may return there in the future to attend their academy course. If you have a spare two months coming up you should go too. There is heaps of information on the internet about Earthship. Visit the Earthship webpage for more information.