I recommend looking at the website link below which will take you to some pictures of what are termed 'earthship houses'.
These houses are bermed into the ground to provide thermal mass, but the wall structure is made from old tyres filled with dirt. The walls are stacked up and the roof is constructed of steel or wooden beams supported by the tyre walls. Some examples have even been totally submerged into the ground. Others (as shown) have domed roofs constructed by using a sand pile as formwork for a concrete cast. Of course the earthship houses are pretty radical and green - most of the time designed so they require no service link ups at all- totally self sufficient, even growing all their own vegetables. I think this could perhaps be a good solution to construction in the desert where transport of materials is expensive and we would like to use the thermal mass of the ground to protect from high daytime temps. Perhaps construction of part of the project out of tyres could make good use of old tyres littering the area? I'd really like to hear what you think of this concept and what ideas this may generate for you in terms of our Domus desert project.
2 comments:
Interesting ideas Catherine. I imagine it would be pretty easy to throw a whole lot of old tyres in the back of a truck and then stack them up once you got to the site. Also to build into the earth would, as you say, save a lot of transporting. I just wonder what it would be like to be in that kind of building. No doubt it would be very cool (in the temperature sense) but I think if I was building a place out there I would want more of a sense of the openness and space. I guess it raises the question of what is the priority in the design and how is it possible to get a compromise between all the competing ideas.
www.earthship.com
Earthship n. 1. passive solar home made of natural and recycled materials 2. thermal mass construction for temperature stabilization. 3. renewable energy & integrated water systems make the Earthship an off-grid home with little to no utility bills.
Biotecture n. 1. the profession of designing buildings and environments with consideration for their sustainability. 2. A combination of biology and architecture.
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