USE OF EARTHSHIPS IN SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTIONS

USE OF EARTHSHIPS IN
SUSTAINABLE
CONSTRUCTIONS
Presented By
Gayathri Sreekumar
Mohandas College
of Engineering and
Technology
SEMINAR PRESENTATION

Contents
 Introduction
 Sustainable Development
 Civil Engineers and Sustainable Development
 Earthships
 Earthships v/s Conventional Buildings
 Conclusions
 References
SEMINAR PRESENTATION BY GAYATHRI SREEKUMAR

INTRODUCTION

What is an Earthship?
• A type of sustainable construction
•Made of natural and up cycled materials
•Intended to be "oﬀ-the-grid ready” homes
•Minimal to no reliance on both public utilities and fossil fuels
(Source: http://earthship.com/)

WHAT IS THE NEED FOR
EARTHSHIPS?

Urbanization
 Increase in the proportion of people living in urban areas
compared to rural areas
 Predicted to increase in coming years
 Urbanization can cause:
Expansion of urban areas
Congested living situations
More depletion of resources

Effects Of Urbanization
 Overpopulation
 Lack of Adequate housing
 Water availability and decreasing quality
 Energy demand
 Waste disposal

Scarcity of natural resources and the issues of
environmental destruction can be limited
Sustaining natural finite resources for the needs
of future generations
Aim - to save the environment and achieve
human comfort with minimum possible costs and
less usage of finite natural resources
Sustainable Development

CIVIL ENGINEERING AND SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT
As per ASCE (2001)
“Sustainable development is the challenge of meeting
human needs for natural resources, industrial products, energy,
food, transportation, shelter and effective waste management
while conserving and protecting environmental quality and the
natural resource base essential for future development”

Civil engineers have the professional
obligation to convince the clients to adapt to
sustainable designing

Earthship
 Energy and water-efficient homes - healthier environment - financial
benefits
 Initially designed -1970s by Mike Reynolds
 U-shaped earth-filled tire house
 Theoretically any dense material - potential for thermal mass – concrete,
adobe or stone
 Used for:
 Residential purposes
 Green houses

Six Principles Addressed by Earthships
are:
 Thermal/solar heating and cooling
 Solar and wind electricity
 Contained sewage treatment
 Building with natural and recycled materials
 Water harvesting
 Food production
 "oﬀ-the-grid ready” homes - minimal to no reliance on public
utilities and fossil fuels

Construction and Design
 Horseshoe-shaped – 90 degree angles with rammed tires
difficult
 Thick and dense walls provide thermal mass - regulates interior
temperature
 Outer walls - earth-rammed tires
 Shovels dirt from site –
Sledge hammer to pack the dirt

Construction and Design (Contd.)
 Finished earth-rammed tire - large enough to surpass
conventional requirements for structural load distribution
 Colder climates - extra insulation added
 Non-load-bearing walls - honeycomb of recycled cans
joined by concrete - thickly plastered with adobe
 Roof – trusses or wooden support beams
 Roof, north, east and west facing walls - heavily insulated -
prevent temperature loss

Water collection
 Harvested from rain, snow, and condensation
 Channeled through a silt-catching device to a
cistern
 Cistern - gravity feed a water organization
module (WOM)
 Conventional pressure tank - household water
pressure
 Every household activity except ﬂushing
toilets (Sorce:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship)

Grey water
 Filtered waste water - sinks and showers -
without fecal contamination
 Fewer pathogens-safer handling and easier to
treat and reuse onsite
 Toilet flushing
 Landscape or crop irrigation
 Other non-potable uses

Black Water
 From toilets
 anaerobic digestion in septic tanks
 Septic tank - solar heated, glazed south side - enhances
anaerobic process
 functions like a regular septic tank – extra incubator - more
efficient
 Presence of ecoli – not suitable for edible plantsSEMINAR PRESENTATION BY GAYATHRI SREEKUMAR

Climate
 Rely on-solar heat gain and the ability of the
tire walls-store heat
 Earth rammed tire walls-soak up heat during
the day-radiate heat during the night-interior
climate relatively comfortable
 Use passive solar heating and cooling
 Integrated shades, skylights-heat regulation
(Source:https://justinsmediaclassblog.wordpress.co
m/2011/09/16/research-7-earthship-systems-
climate-control/)SEMINAR PRESENTATION BY GAYATHRI SREEKUMAR

Power
 Collect and store their own energy
 Majority harvested - sun and wind -
photovoltaic panels and wind turbines
 Generate dc energy-stored in deep-cycle
batteries
 Power organizing module (POM)
 Stored energy from batteries-invert it for ac use-
circuit breakers and converters
 Can be used to run any household appliance
(Source:
https://justinsmediaclassblog.wordpress.com/)

Ventilation
 Own ventilation system
 30ft pipe - cooling the air
– by when it reaches
comfort zone
 Cooler air coming in -
warmer air blowing out -
smaller vented window
(
Source:http://inexpensivehomebuilding.blogspot.in/2006_10_01_archive.
html)SEMINAR PRESENTATION BY GAYATHRI SREEKUMAR

Earthship v/s Conventional Houses
From the different case studies conducted by Elena Kuil and Martin Freney the
following observations were noted

Construction Type
 Built according to common
practice
 Meeting minimal legally
required energy standards –
conventional buildings
 Large houses - more energy
to meet the same
performance requirements as
small houses
 Designed to have minimum
adverse impacts on the built
and natural environment
 Ecologically built - provide all
needs of residents - without
assistance from outside
 Sustainable technologies-
prevent strains on
environment
Conventional Buildings Earthships

Construction Materials
 Wood and timber
 Sand, gravel and concrete
 Clay, bricks and tiles
 Plastic
 To restrict environmental
impact of building materials-
responsible usage
 non biodegradable
 Scrap tyres
 Steel and aluminium cans
 Glass bottles
 Loam
 More economic
 Recycling and reusing of
waste
 minimum waste – solving
environmental issue of
Conventional Buildings Earthships

Energy Efficiency
 Utilize solar or geothermal heat
 Provide rain and grey water harvesting
 Saving huge amounts of natural energy
 Centralized heater and temperature controlling systems avoided
 Angle of the windows and thermal storage in walls – earthships better choice
 Dirt filled tyres - acts as a heat sink

Energy Efficiency (Contd.)
 Windows - face south to allow the sun to heat up the thermal
mass throughout the daytime
 Aligned in a special manner to provide maximum efficiency –
inclined 10-15 degrees east of south
 Maximize natural light and solar-gain during winter months
 Humid environment - collect water along their interior wall
surfaces - forming vertical pool - for molds and algae to grow
within the walls of planting areas - edible plants are infected
 Dry environment - physically not possible to collect enough
rainwater to support the houseSEMINAR PRESENTATION BY GAYATHRI SREEKUMAR

Environmental Impact
 Using materials that are selected based on their life-cycle
 Making use of renewable energy resources
 Minimizing the use of mined rare metals and persistent
synthetic compounds
 Applying reduce, reuse, and recycle to materials in all phases
of construction and demolition
 Reducing harmful waste products produced during
construction.

Economic Impact
 Maximizing energy conservation efficiency – building
orientation and natural light
 Using natural insulation such as roof gardens
 Using technology such as solar panels, fuel cells, and photo
voltaic cells
 Conserving water and reducing runoff using
 contour landscaping
 water conserving or water-recycling appliances.
 Minimizing initial cost of construction as building materials are
often reused SEMINAR PRESENTATION BY GAYATHRI SREEKUMAR

Occupant Productivity
 Heschong Mahone Group, California - incorporation of natural
light - positive results on a building’s occupants
 U.S. Department of Energy and the Rocky Mountain Institute -
efficient lighting, heating, and cooling increased worker
productivity, decreased absence, and improved the quality of
work performed
 Earthship enhance occupant safety, health, and comfort by
 Reducing or eliminating toxic and harmful materials and finishes
 maintenance and operational practices - reduce or eliminate harmful
effects on people and environment
 Employing control over temperature, air flow and lighting.

Existing engineering design does not minimize life cycle costs in terms
of economics and environmental impact
Sustainable design -reduces material consumption, improves the quality
of life for people, better economic performance, preserves natural
resources for future generations.
Earthships - enormous energy saving a well as material saving
 successfully deployed in every area of the world.
Conclusions

Conclusions (Contd.)
 Reduced conventional heating systems - reduce energy costs
to low or non-existent
 With time structure become more efficient and provide more
stable temperatures
 Reduced amount of carbon dioxide emission
 Structural stability not known – area for future studies
 If structural engineering aspects developed - structurally stable
and efficient multi storey, high rise buildings construction
 Game changing development in terms of sustainability in civil
engineering SEMINAR PRESENTATION BY GAYATHRI SREEKUMAR

References
1. Cassandra L. Champagnea, Can B. Aktasa (2016) , “Assessing the Resilience of
LEED Certified Green Buildings”, pg 581
2. Elena Kuil (2012) “The sustainability of conventional houses, passive houses and
earthships, based on legislation, environmental impact energy and operating
energy”, pg 13-25, 34-49.
3. Martin Freney (2012), “Life Cycle Assessment of Earthship Architecture”
4. Melissa Bilec, Robert Ries, H. Scott Matthews (2011), ―Sustainable Development
and Green Design “Who Is Leading the Green Initiative?” pg 265 - 266.
5. J.A. Ochsendorf (2010) ―Sustainable Engineering: The Future of Structural
Design‖, pg 4, 8.
6. Richard Dobbs and Shirish Sankhe, (2010) “Opinion: China vs. India”
7. Martin Freney, “Earthships: sustainable housing alternative”, International Journal of
Sustainable Design, Jan 2009, Vol. 1, Issue 2, pg. 223-240SEMINAR PRESENTATION BY GAYATHRI SREEKUMAR

References (Contd.)
8. Martin Freney, “Earthships: sustainable housing alternative”, International
Journal of Sustainable Design, Jan 2009, Vol. 1, Issue 2, pg. 223-240
9. Agenda for the Future (2003) Institution of Civil Engineers, London.
10. ASCE (2001), “The Role of the Civil Engineer in Sustainable
Development” , ASCE Policy Statement 418, American Society of Civil
Engineers, Approved on April 27, 2001
11. “Earthship Design Principles”. Earthship.com. Earthship Biotecture.
12. “Earthship pros and cons”. http://www.archinia.com/about-
us/publications/216-earthshippros-and-cons.html
13. Wright.D.W, (1996) ―Infrastructure planning and sustainable
development.‖ J. Urban Planning and Development, pg 4

USE OF EARTHSHIPS IN SUSTAINABLE CONSTRUCTIONS

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