Sustaining Life

Sustaining Life in the Desert

By Ruthanne Johnson

Boulder County Home & Garden Magazine

Spring/Summer 2007 Issue

Jessica Watson doesn't miss the years she spent living in conventional housing. "I remember having to share an apartment with three and four people just to be able to afford rent and utilities," says the 21-year-old, who now lives and works in a decidedly different community outside of Taos, N.M.

This desert town usually brings to mind adobes, trendy galleries, Tex-Mex restaurants and bright red chili peppers dangling outside shops. But just twelve miles northwest of town is the lesser-known, offbeat neighborhood that Watson and others call home.

Beyond the cliffs of the Rio Grande Gorge, the Greater World Earthship Community blends easily into the cactus desert off U.S. Highway 64. From a distance, the homes look like mere bulges in the landscape, mimicking the dirt mounds in prairie dog towns. But as one drives closer to this small spread-out community, enormous south-facing windows suddenly jut from the land like miniature Flatirons made of glass. At closer look, other signs of human habitation emerge: reflective solar panels, propane tanks, wind turbines and oddly shaped adobe homes with curved walls, turrets and arched doors. This obviously is not your typical community.

Architect Michael Reynolds developed the GWEC more than thirty years ago in response to the 1970's oil crisis. Reynolds wanted to create an entire community that

environmental degradation are increasingly the norm. "I always felt vulnerable depending on the grid," Watson says of her years spent living in "normal" housing. "In cold months my gas and electric bill would sometimes top $500. Now my main expense is rent."

In lieu of tapping into public utilities, the GWEC garners electricity from wind and sun, collects water from rainfall and snowmelt and satisfies heating and cooling needs through passive solar and thermal mass construction. Actor and environmentalist Dennis Weaver signed on to Reynolds' revolutionary concept in the mid-70's and built his own 10,000-square-foot Earthship in Ridgeway, Colo., which still piques the curiosity of drive-by tourists.

Since its inception as an off-the-grid experiment with a handful of oddly shaped dwellings, the GWEC has become a legal subdivision of more than 50 homes on 633 acres, with 347 acres committed to a natural park. More than 100 additional properties are currently available for development, and two recycling and transfer stations maintain free building materials for community members. Reynolds' master plan includes a community building, sports park, amphitheater and public education facility.

Because they're off the grid, Earthship houses share a similar design. On the north side of each building, sod is piled to roof level, hence the mound-like appearance from a distance. On their south side, each house has floor-to-ceiling windows and banks of solar panels. The walls are crafted mainly from recycled materials, including tires, aluminum cans, and glass bottles, and then plastered over with adobe.

Constructing a Community

Reynolds' community began by acquiring property with significant southern

exposure to collect the passive solar crucial to maintaining the homes' year-round temperatures of between 60 and 72 degrees. Thermal mass is the other component that helps maintain this range, despite blizzards or blistering heat. An Earthship's thick, load bearing walls are made of staggered rows of steel-belted tires filled with packed dirt. Aluminum cans and adobe fill the spaces between tires, and the walls are plastered over with adobe and sealed to prevent weathering.

Non-load-bearing walls are often decorated with colored glass from recycled bottles. The bottom of each glass lies flush with the outer layer of adobe, allowing sapphire, ruby, and diamond rays of light to sparkle through in colorful kaleidoscopes.

To meet the community's water needs, Earthship roofs catch and funnel water through multiple filtration systems that eventually deposit it into a large cistern inside the home. The

water is first used for drinking and bathing, and then recycled for household uses, including irrigation of indoor planters located at the base of the south-facing windows and exterior landscapes. Because of the atmosphere inside an Earthship, the planters can grow tropical plants such as banana and papaya trees, as well a conventional fruits, vegetables and houseplants. In addition to collecting its own water, the community contains and treats its own sewage and grows enough produce to significantly put a dent in an Earthship dweller's food budget.

Haven or Heaven

Despite these practical benefits, the community is sometimes still viewed as a haven for hippies and radicals. Most visitors come to the community to tour its model home or stay in one of its rentals, but "every once in a while we get a disgruntled person who doesn't agree with what we're doing," says Earthship dweller Kirsten Jacobsen. One day, a woman drove up to her neighbor's house and began ranting about how the community conflicts with "true American ideals."

That's a rare occurrence, however, because global warming and resource depletion have more recently made sustainability a nationwide priority. Some states even promote renewable energy through bills such as Colorado's Amendment 37, passed in 2004, that requires utilities to obtain 10 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2020. In the swirl of this new political focus, Earthship communities are now seen as visionary alternatives to conventional housing.

They're also cheaper to build because the building materials are relatively inexpensive. Reynolds, who builds Earthship communities worldwide, says an average two-bedroom home in the Taos community costs around $200,000 to build, with a six-month construction period. Homeowners can build their own Earthship, too, which substantially decreases the cost. Since its dwellings are less

expensive than just about anywhere else in Taos, the Earthship community hopes to attract people from diverse economic backgrounds.

For her part, Watson doesn't regret the move from conventional to Earthship housing. She says, "It feels honorable to live in a home that exists symbiotically with the environment."