2 April 2008
Earthships eco housing in Nanaimo?
Posted by Ryan Coffey under: eco .
I have a confession to make…
I’m an environmentalist.
Yes, that’s right, I give one percent of my revenues to environmental charities, (via www.onepercentfortheplanet.org) I drive a hybrid car, I mostly only eat natural foods and use natural soaps and so on. And some might call me a “hippie realtor.” While I was going through my teen years in a small logging town (Port Alberni) as the son of a logger, this didn’t always make things fun, but it sure made high school uh… interesting. Things are different now, I don’t feel afraid to talk openly about environmental concerns anymore because these things are now becoming mainstream. Funny how attitudes change even though yours may not.
Anyway, about a year and a half ago I came across a youtube video that described these AMAZING eco friendly homes called “Earthships”. They collect and process their own water, generate their own electricity, their own heat, grow food and medicinal plants, make comfortable homes in any climate and are built using recycled materials. “Wow!” I thought “I have to see one!”
Now the thing is, there aren’t a lot of these things in the world just yet. They’re actually pretty spread out at the moment so without flying down to new mexico or who knows where, I can’t find one to view. There are one or two in BC that I’m aware of and I’m currently trying to track down the owner of one I hear was built somewhere near Nanaimo. (If you know where it is or can put me in contact with the owner I would REALLY appreciate it.) I have a client who is looking to build one so I would like to meet anyone who has experience with these homes if only to share knowledge and contacts.
It seems to me that these homes are about to get a whole lot of media exposure. The creator of these “biotectures”, Michael Reynolds, appeared on the Colbert Report last night to plug his new movie “Garbage Warrior” which features these homes. The movie opened in theatres in Canada about six weeks ago and is opening on the Sundance Channel tonight. I’ll post the video for the interview at the bottom of the videos, but if you’re one of the very few people not familiar with the Colbert Report, when you watch the video keep in mind that the character of Stephen Colbert is a farce on close minded extreme right wingers.
Here are some videos about these innovative homes so you can get an idea about what all the fuss is about. The first two are the ones that got my attention initially and the last one is the Colbert Report interview, which is less informative but kinda funny. There are quite a few more out there, so have a look on your own if this interests you. They’re certainly not for everyone, but regardless the fact that people are currently living quite comfortably in these eco friendly homes shows that there’s something for us to learn from their design.
There is also a very good collection of videos on the earthships site here.
One Comment so far...
Nikki Says:
22 November 2008 at 1:06 am.
Hey Ryan,
so glad to hear that I’m not the only raving lunatic going on about permaculture and earthship designs…….as you say……attitudes have changed around us……(lol)
I’m moving from Vancouver to 100 Mile House this spring and after 3 years of research have decided that a hybrid home off the grid is where I’m heading. Unfortunately I’ve been unable to find any earthships here in B.C. to check out and share info. with……….have you had any luck tracking down any in province?
I’m going east to Ontario over the x-mas holidays and hopefully will hook up with the Potter’s earthship near Bancroft……..to pull ideas for our colder Canadian winters…..that’s the upside. The downside is that building codes in B.C. may be difficult to navigate if we haven’t had any similar structures created here…..I’m looking to pave the way up north……but it would be really helpful if some headway was already made in beautiful B.C.
Any info. or contacts you have come across would be greatly appreciated. Likewise I’d be happy to share whatever I find out with you……. maybe with enough of us we can band our info. together and create a ‘BC blog’ with all the latest current info. so others won’t have to wade through mountains and hours of websites to get to a smiggin of info. for the province of B.C.
Can you sense I’m frustrated (lol)
any haaaaaaaaaaaaaaalp would be greatly appreciated
nikki c.
nikkic67@hotmail.com