Earthships – Eco Buildings
Well today, I satisfied one of my new personal hobbies. I went to see an earthship built in Brighton.
Brighton Earthship
I’ve been nuts about green architecture for a while now. The Grand Designs TV show has fuelled a lot of this, plus reading about people that do things differently. The fact that we are living in an age where “Green” is not only a hot word, but actually the best way forwards, I cannot understand why it has not been embraced by the government, and rolled out as a national programme. Or enforced as a law. Just shows you what governments are interested in.
Well, they are only interested in it until they get into power.
I also started reading a lot about them across different websites.
The main draw to them is the fact that they are fully self sustainable. And you could go completely off the grid. Besides a phone line. But there are probably ways around that as well. Also the fact that you can grow your own veg, means in theory, you would never have to pay for any food ever again (unless your a meat lover – even then, you could raise and kill your own, you know, …….if you wanted to.)
The main drawback is they are not so aesthetically pleasing on the eye, but I think they are quirky. They remind me a little of the Mos Esley Cantina from the star wars film. And think if they became big enough then, someone could come up with a more commercially pleasing design.
I went down with my mates Matty and Luke. Buried in the middle of Stamner Park, Brighton, was a small but functional earthship. The guide went on to tell us about every aspect of it. The tyre wall foundations, the walls made from bottles and cans, the greenhouse effect of growing your own veg, the grey water systems, and all the solar panels and wind power systems. In fact, every little aspect of this building was just meticulously done. So much attention had been made to everything. Okay, the floor that looked like it was made of marble pieces was actually made from off cuts of gravestones. I mean, Damn. So it clocks in high on the sustainability factor of living.
So now I am fascinated. And I’m sharing all this everyone.
My head is racing with a million idea’s about how the world could be saved. I guess it didn’t help that I had just watched back to back…An Inconvenient Truth, The 11th Hour and Life After People. Damn, talk about depressing. Don’t the government watch these programmes? Are they motivated only when a flood comes knocking on their doorstep?
Just round the corner from my house, in the definitely NOT green town of Farnborough, they are building a new apartment site, and I am guessing not ANY of the credentials for this building are green, or using green technology.
- Why are governments enforcing these kind of technologies into law? If it was done on a grand scale, material costs would come down.
- What is the problem? Are the government up to? Why is there no national campaign to get rid of outdated light bulbs, energy hungry refrigerators?
- Why are there no grey water solutions being step up in blocks of flats? Solar panelled roof’s? Green roofs? Wind turbines? Anything?
Does anyone listen? I am going to build one. One day!!
I’m off to save the world. Don’t wait up……
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