Property News · February 7, 2017

‘Earthships’ land in Indonesia


They come in pieces
An ‘earthship’ in Taos, New Mexico. Biodiesel33/Wikimedia Commons
Forget ‘Arrival.’ Volunteers have gathered to build the first ‘earthships’ in the island of Gili Kenawa in Indonesia, The Jakarta Post reported.
Contrary to the sci-fi-sounding nomenclature, earthships are made to house humans, not heptapods. They are essentially zero-carbon, sustainable homes firmly tethered to the ground; they won’t take to the skies anytime soon.
A total of 44 earthships will be dotting Indonesia over the next three years as part of Southeast Asia’s first Earthship academy and Earthship resort. The project is in turn part of an initiative to create Asia’s largest eco-region, encompassing 20,000 hectares of forestland, reefs and beaches in Indonesia.
Asia is familiar territory for architect Michael Reynolds, 72, who has been building earthships around the world for 40 years. In 2014, he helped build an aerodynamic version of the earthship, called a “windship,” in Batug, a town struck by Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines.
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“I think real sustainability involves six aspects of humanity,” Reynolds told The Jakarta Post. “We’re trying to make a building that addresses all of these six things, all the time, all over the world. That’s what this building will be.”
The homes are made of garbage and recycled materials indigenous to the locale, from bottles to old tires with compressed soil. The exotic construction materials maximise ventilation and keep temperatures inside the structure as low as 20 degrees Celsius, even as the weather outside gets sweltering. Such micro-climate eliminates the need for air-conditioners.
In fact, Earthship is designed to let occupants live off the grid, with electricity sourced from solar panels and wind turbines. Water is collected from rain, while grey waters are used to nourish gardens.
Reynolds’ team will train locals in constructing the green homes before proselytising his school of sustainable design elsewhere. “This is the first of such buildings in Indonesia,” Agus, a local worker in earthship construction, told the Post. “There are old tires and plastic bottles everywhere, so it’s good to learn how to make strong buildings with this.”
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Source : property-report.com
Read more…‘Earthships’ land in Indonesia

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