What do you mean by earthship house?

An earthship house is a self-sufficient house made out of sustainable and recyclable materials. It is built with an aim to conserve energy. In an earthship home, the material used basically consists of tyres, aluminum cans, glass and plastic bottles. The discarded tyres are mixed with compacted soil to create a strong material which is suitable for the construction of outer walls and inner load bearing walls. These homes are built to be integrated to the surrounding natural environment.

Earthship house design is such that the water and power generation happens from the installation of special organizing modules that collect energy from the sun and wind, i.e. via solar panels or wind turbines. These structures have special batteries that hold energy for heating, cooling, lighting and other purposes such as sewage. The major water source in an earthship home is through a rain water harvesting system installed at the roof.

It is said that the earthship house costs are on a lower side since they don’t need any foundation.

Alex Leeor from Brighton, UK has travelled to Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu to build India’s first earthship home and he said that it would cost him INR 20 lakhs approximately.

Earthship houses are a relatively new concept in India. These homes are based on the basic concept pioneered by American architect Michael E. Reynolds.