What comes to your mind when you imagine an Earthship? I bet at first you’re a little confused. It could be a spaceship that’s modeled to look like the Earth. It could be a ship that was sent to cultivate “earthly” life on another planet. It could be a lot of things. But the Earthship that I’m talking about is unfortunately located on the Earth itself. Well, it’s not actually much of a ship at all. It’s a house. Even though it’s just a house, the design is a lot more futuristic than your normal everyday house. It uses unusual curves and vibrant colors that humans will only find as we progress further into the future. Unfortunately, our society is not futurizing and looking ahead enough to enjoy Earthships with their futuristic design.
Although the science behind the ship is interesting, I find the design most captivating. To preface this thought, I think it’s important to understand that this house is not normal in any way. Even if one wouldn’t describe it as futuristic, it’s something that I would expect to see in an alternate reality. However, when considering this, I’m not sure if our current society would want to buy a home with this design.
Take the Tesla for example, somebody recently told me that one of the reasons they wouldn’t buy a Tesla was because the car looks like it’s from the future. The idea that a car could look too futuristic had never really crossed my mind before. As a matter of fact, I didn’t understand why people wouldn’t want a car that looks futuristic. For me, I would because a car like the Tesla gave me hope. The car gave me hope that we might someday get to a point where we are living with flying cars, big screens on buildings, and technology so advanced it would blow your mind then rebuild your mind for you.
Putting my hopes aside, I began to seriously consider that many people would be okay with their houses being sustainable and their cars using clean energy if their designs remained similar to now. But my mind still fundamentally combats that idea. As humans, we are always progressing and changing. I just think it’s about the right person promoting an idea, or the right incentive to move towards futuristic designs.
Let’s talk about what makes Earthship so amazing now. There are so many appealing things about the house and they all stem from the idea of sustainable living. The creator of the house, Micheal Reynolds, saw the rising issue of climate change associated with carbon emissions and wanted to do something about it. Since metal and cement production release large amounts of carbon, Reynolds decided to pivot. He came to the idea of building a house out of metal cans.
“Are you serious Malik?” Yes, he used metal cans. This one house developed into an entire architecture business, and all the houses they built had to follow a general list of materials before construction could start. This list consisted of natural materials like wood and mud but also old tires and glass bottles. The tires are used to build walls, which are packed with dirt to provide insulation. When this insulation is paired with windows that are strategically placed so that the sunlight can enter into various parts of the house, it creates a warm and comfortable environment. Because of these methods of insulation and sunlight exposure, the house remains the same temperature through winter and summer. This means that the house doesn’t need the energy that would otherwise be used in the heating and cooling of the house. I think these types of designs are so cool because they implement interesting and efficient natural systems within them. In the long run, this not only allows for comfortable living, but a sustainable way of living.
In recent times, this type of house has become more popular among people because the sustainable way of living and savings on heating and cooling within the house are too good to overlook. I think the way we can get more people to look at this kind of house is to guarantee a good price for whatever they are buying. This is important because no matter how popular the Earthship design becomes, if people can’t afford it, then it’s no good. As it stands, the minimum cost of the house is $500,000. This is unrealistic for many people within the United States, much less people around the world. I have hope though. If we look back 50 years, renewable energy technology was some of the most expensive technology out there. Now solar panel prices have dropped by almost 100% per panel. With this kind of change, I am sure that in 20 to30 years in the future the Earthship’s price will drop enough to benefit everyone.
