Michael Reynolds, an American architect who lives in New Mexico and has a passion for sustainability, was the first to conceive of Earthships. These buildings are constructed out of natural and manufactured materials. The homes are designed to be both energy-efficient and environmentally beneficial by utilizing items like worn tires. Bryce from the Living Large In A Tiny House YouTube channel traveled to Australia last year to meet with a couple that was living their dream life in an Earthship house.
A couple in Adelaide, Australia were living off the grid until a YouTuber visited their Earthship home and produced a video tour for his followers to view.
After inventing the idea of Earthship homes, Reynolds wanted to start a movement that addressed the issue of waste in America. Reynolds desired his structures to be both pleasant and ecologically beneficial. He believed Earthship structures were an easy method to live off the grid while at the same time adhering to a lifestyle of “radically sustainable living.”
Reynolds’s ideas resonated with Martin and Zoe, so they decided to build their own Earthship home in Australia. To learn more, Michael even went to study under Reynolds in Taos, New Mexico. There, he became a student of Reynolds’s Earthship Biotecture and learned how to construct an Earthship home himself. When he completed his studies and came back home to Australia, Martin and Zoe got straight to work constructing their own version of Reynolds’s invention.
Martin and Zoe’s Earthship home is only 750 square feet, but it is big on features. Solar panels power the home, collected water provides for plumbing needs, the temperature is regulated without needing to rely on traditional heating/cooling systems, greywater is recycled back into the household eco-system & there’s even space to grow food. It really shows that you don’t need a lot of space to live GREEN!
A group of volunteers came to their aid. These individuals traveled all the way from Australia to assist the pair in building their Earthship home from scratch. The couple also decided to build their house after going through the local council’s approval procedure, which was no easy task.
The YouTube video has been liked by over one hundred thousand people and commented on over three thousand four hundred times since it was uploaded in 2018, earning 5.4 million views.
“I love that Bryce and Martin feel such ease communicating with each other, almost like they are old friends. You really feel Martin’s passion for Earthships, and his home is so, so beautiful.”
“I love how they utilize the cool air from the ground underneath the building for air-conditioning on hot days. It’s funny how humankind is dying of heat on the surface of the earth when it’s 40C outside, yet 2,5 meters below in the ground, there’s like stable 17C! Ingenious!”
What are your thoughts on this one-of-a-kind Earthship home?
