Chapter III
A Way Forward
“In order to change an existing paradigm you do not struggle to try and change the problematic model. You create a new model and make the old one obsolete.”
- Buckminster Fuller
Whether your dream home ultimately ends up being an Earthship, an earth-shelter, a natural home, a tiny house… or some variation or combination of these… the path ahead is one that can sometimes be difficult and overwhelming. In the chapters that follow, we will line out each step in the process of design to help you find your way.
Since time immemorial, architects and builders have been imagining a new future into existence. We would not have had the Gothic Age, the Renaissance, the Arts and Crafts Movement, or Modernism without someone wanting to imagine a better architectural future for people. Many of these movements forged architecture that will stand the test of time and that will continue to influence designers for generations beyond our own.
The failure of modern design happened when we started developing future movements around the 20th century ideas of everything having to be entirely new instead of building on the past. We have seen countless homes of the future come and go since the Industrial Revolution... from Claude Ledoux’ sphere home in the nineteenth century, to Disneyland’s “House of the Tomorrow” made by Monsanto and built in 1957 (and abandoned because it was already outdated by 1967)… these interpretations of what we “needed” for the future depended on the technology and the materials of the moment to make their statement. This is a solid foundation on which to build, in principle… use what we have to work with. The problem is that technology becomes outdated more quickly with every passing year. When we build our ideas of home based on fad design techniques and trendy but untested materials and technologies, the vision for the future we just invested in is no longer relevant or useful when those ideas and materials change.
The Earthship suffers from the same handicap. Forty years ago, there was a real need to do something… anything… with old tires, cans, and bottles. Today, those materials can all be recycled for better uses rather than be reused as building materials. And we know now that the buildings do not meet the performance ideals to which they were designed in many climates. We can move past these limitations - we can take what is good from the Earthships and tweak the rest to make our home work better for our values and location. In fact, if we want to call ourselves truly sustainable, we have a responsibility to.
Several of the European Union (EU)-based Earthship organizations decided to look to science to see if the Earthships were truly viable from the standpoint of thermal performance, materials used, and liveability. When they determined that the buildings did not function adequately to meet their needs, they decided to abandon all but the line of separate rooms, the greenhouse, the south-facing wall of windows, the grey water system and rainwater harvesting systems. They then redesigned every remaining detail. We agree with this approach. We would even propose taking it a step further… we would abandon the tropical-style greenhouse as it is currently designed and add a window wall designed to passive solar guidelines and an attached production greenhouse instead.
This book is our attempt to share the best information we have learned about Earthships and other natural building ideas from projects, builders, forums, and designers around the world. We then added layers of best practices we use when designing buildings to meet or exceed the requirements of typical municipal green design ordinances, LEED, HUD, USAA, and even the Building Code... so that it is easier for your project to meet or exceed those standards from the outset.
We will incorporate some of the best design ideas gleaned from our own experience as well as from forward-thinking designs like Frank Lloyd Wright’s timeless Usonian Houses, the “homes for tomorrow” he designed in the 1930s. The Usonian Houses used beautifully detailed natural materials and offered a living “heart” of the home in the living areas (often centered around a fireplace). They worked with and embraced nature and he incorporated people-scaled spaces in the home. We will also explore the underlying principles in the teachings of the first century Roman architect Vitruvius who called for buildings to be built on the principals of “firmness, commodity, and delight”, so we will also address structural stability, designing spaces sized and oriented for the way we live, and designing spaces that feed our souls. Because that is part of what we see is missing from the general built environment... not just Earthships.
We have built several resources to offer you architectural inspiration from the rich history we all share. Check out our firm Archinia’s Pinterest boards titled Usonian, Magic Cottages, EcoCommunities, and Archinia’s Inspired Idea Book to find inspiration from projects around the world.
We also love our friend Sigi Koko’s website http://www.buildnaturally.com and her Facebook fan page https://www.facebook.com/buildnaturally for the best of the best in great design tips for natural building.
As well, we love our friend Oliver Swann’s Natural Home website at http://www.NaturalHomes.org .
Designing a home is an enormous undertaking. Helping to design and manage these complex projects is one of the things we do in our office. It takes many hands and many months to pull together all the information needed to craft a design and then to detail a home so that it meets the client’s quality and performance standards and makes our clients feel truly “at home”.
We know that many people would like to design and create a space that they can build themselves or with their community. Their motivation might be being environmentally-sensitive, fulfilling the dream of designing a home of one’s own, or it might be about getting the most home value for the money you have to invest. Designing a home can prove to be frustrating without any training or guidance. For some, it might even prove impossible. There is so much to know and learning it all can take a lifetime. And, just when you think you have it figured out, you meet someone from somewhere else and they do things exactly the opposite way of what you thought was “right”. Or technology or science change and suddenly what was right is now wrong. With sixteen years of practice under my belt, I am only just realizing that beginner’s mind is an essential element in design. It allows me to question all of my assumptions and go back to science to look for reasons to do something… or not to. So, please, do not lose faith. You can work your way through this too. It is all about taking your gut feelings and figuring out what they are really telling you, and then turning to people who are craftsmen, like the team we have brought on for this effort, to get their expertise to help you do it well.
In this book we want to share the resources as well as the ideas, tips, tricks, and rules of thumb that we have learned along the way. We want to empower our readers to achieve their home design goals in ways that support their lifestyle and their values, whether they use the Earthship idea fully or just borrow aspects they love from it. We will walk through our process of design in the next chapters so that readers have the tools needed to make their self-designed space shine. For materials, we will offer a broad swath of what is available, not depending solely on traditional Earthship design techniques.
Some of the biggest questions that you will need to answer in regard to how you want to build and live in your new home will require you to define your values. Sometimes there is no easy choice. There are pros and cons for every system and material. You will find reasons to use adobe and reasons for using strawbale instead. You will have to make a choice about which of those works for you. You may not want to use wood products because that may go against a deeply held environmental value that motivates you to save every bit of the earth and allow it to remain natural. So when it comes to choosing fiberglass windows versus clad-wood, you may choose fiberglass. Alternately, you may not want to use plastic products and support the oil industry that manufactures them. It is all about understanding your own values and determining what works for you. The same holds true for the aspects of design we will talk about here.
This book is not intended to deal with the technicalities of building. There are plenty of resources available outside of this work that excel in technical building details for various systems, but lack what we are trying to offer in design. We will also not cover the Water Organizing Modules, Power Organizing Modules, or equipment and appliances typical in Earthships here. Those systems are covered in Earthship, Volumes 2 and 3. We are going to cover some of what is missing from the standard literature as well as alternate options for those for whom grid-tied means affordable. We will also try to explain the underlying principles behind the different materials and methods so that you can make more informed design decisions and choose the methods and materials that will help you to live the life you want. Which of these materials and methods you go with depends on your values, your experience level, and your budget... and whether you build grid-tied, or off-grid. Hopefully, you will find a combination of resources that works for you!
This book is written from the point of view of New Mexico, USA. The issues that we discuss here are designed for the northern hemisphere. We try and provide guidance for southern hemisphere applications where appropriate.
We hope that this will be just the beginning, and that we will add to the book in future editions to make it better. It is all about bringing architecture to the People. And, hopefully, doing it in a truly sustainable way that makes life better for everyone. That is our mission.
by Rachel Preston Prinz and Carrie Christopher
Designing a truly sustainable home is an art, and when it is done well, it is an art that is based on science. Many people like to think that “going green” can be achieved via a checklist like LEED and trusting things that are labeled “green”. In reality though, that is not enough because a lot of what is considered “green” today is really just “greener”. Many modern “green” products use the same old technologies with a few less chemicals. That is not truly sustainable. Whereas some traditional techniques are thousands of years old and do not need chemicals at all, last longer, and support traditional craftwork. Because of the challenges in finding the right balance, in our office we developed a sustainability philosophy to guide our projects. These criteria will guide us as we talk through all of the aspects of design in this book.
We choose materials based on criteria that give our clients the most truly sustainable buildings:
PERFORMANCE WITHIN THE SPECIFIED CLIMATE
Some trees, when used in their native humid environments will naturally deter against pests and decomposition. These woods are far more sustainable than a single creosote-treated pine log, which is potentially toxic to everything around it, including the soil and water. Because of these types of considerations, we choose materials that are local to, or specifically selected to work with, as well as support, our environment.
TENDENCY TO DECOMPOSE / MEANS OF DECOMPOSITION
We prefer using materials that have a long history of good performance, are easily approved, and are superior performers in enhancing thermal comfort. Adobe, brick, stone, and timber frame are the most natural, resilient, and easiest to repair materials to build with. They are also the longest lasting building materials; they have a long history of successful use; and they are often accepted outright by building officials.
EMBODIED ENERGY
Embodied energy is the total amount of energy consumed to take a material from the cradle (the mine) to the grave (the build site). This includes the cost of obtaining the raw material, transporting it to the manufacturing site, making the finished product, and then transporting it to the build site. Embodied energy can be high. Aluminum, a common and predominant component of solar panel installations, contains an enormous amount of embodied energy. It has to be mined, shipped great distances, manufactured, which takes a great deal of heat to produce a usable product, then it must be shipped to the builder. Straw, on the other hand, is a waste product of wheat and grain production, and more than 200 billion tons of it are burned or otherwise disposed of in the United States alone each year. Thus, strawbale has a low embodied energy. Strawbale is an ideal material for the right climate and application.
TOXICITY
Many of today’s newest technologies and materials, even some apparently benign ones, have not been tested in real living environments before they are enthusiastically adopted into design and manufacturing practice. We saw the hugely detrimental effects of mass installations of asbestos from World War II up through the 1970’s. They finally discovered that asbestos was cancer-causing and a rush ensued to get those materials out of buildings. We are in no hurry to repeat such mistakes. One of the industries we look to for research on new materials is cosmetics. Cosmetics manufacturers perform research studies on the individual materials in their products and produce a publicly-available list of which of those chemicals cause harm. To discover which ingredients are healthiest for your build, check out http://www.cosmeticdatabase.com .
Many of the materials we assume and have been told are “green” are actually dangerous. For instance, many bio-based plastics are toxic. They are just assumed to be less toxic because they support the sustainable renewables industry. Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle, for instance, is PET plastic but with one ingredient from sugar cane. The rest of the bottle is made from p-xylene, a hazardous chemical linked to brain damage in newborn animal studies. So, the PlantBottle might be seen as a better option than the original bottle, but it is hardly safe or sustainable. We pay special attention to these materials.
MAINTENANCE / REPAIR-ABILITY
All buildings require maintenance. Green buildings require more than the average amount of upkeep. This is the beauty of truly sustainable buildings - if they are “alive”, we must feed them and care for them so they can stay healthy. This brings us into relationship with our space - we become a participant in, as opposed to a user of, the space. Repair, on the other hand, is never a fun prospect. Repair of new materials and technologies is sometimes infeasible.
LACK OF DEPENDENCE ON TECHNOLOGY
Technology is not always the right answer for every family. Or for every society. While commerce and manufacturing profit greatly from it, many times it is not the right choice for the way we want to live. The bells and whistles… like automated & geared solar panels adjusters, programmable thermostats, and water filtration systems... often require the input of power. Imagine a massive storm shuts down the grid, the solar battery is broken, or our place gets struck by lightning… we want to be able to heat water, stay warm or cool, feed ourselves and the kids, and be safe despite whatever happens. When technology fails, we want to be able to keep living our lives. That is why our designs are not technology-dependent.