Earthships were created by Michael Reynolds, an American architect based in New Mexico who is critical of architectures insistence on sticking with traditional and conventional structures and materials. He's a fierce proponent of radical sustainability, and self-sufficiency. He built his first house using recycled materials in 1972, and in 1973 he patented a brick made from recycled beer cans wired together. He has a number of off-grid Earthship communities that he helped build over the decades, and his homes haven't been without flaw, fault or lawsuit over time. He even lost his architect and construction licence for a time due to his unconventional practice that left some homes incredibly faulty. But he's never claimed to have perfected his designs, and he evolves the materials he uses and technology incorporated with each new build, learning from mistakes.

Earthships are designed to be a completely self-sustaining ecosystem, one that meets the six human needs: Shelter, Clean Water, Food, Energy, Waste Recycling & Sewerage Treatment. Realistically, a properly functioning and run Earthship is one that mean you don't have to get anything from external sources to be happy and healthy, unless you need a replacement part. Isn't that incredible? Everything you need, in your own home, without having to pay for water or heat or electricity or even having your sewerage dealt with. Which makes my socialist heart very happy.

Your potable water (Drinking, bathing, handwashing) is collected from rain and treated in the water storage system. Grey water (Dirty water but not from the toilet) is cleaned and used for things like watering plants. Black water (That's your waste water) goes though a natural system that removes faeces (Unless you're using a composting toilet that separates your solids from your liquids) and then cleans the liquids as much as possible before safely releasing it into the environment or uses it to water plants that aren't for eating, a reed bed system is particularly popular. The sun provides your heat and electricity, along with wind if you also fit a turbine. The earth and tyres do the bulk of insulating the property, with earth helping keep it warm in the winter and cool in the summer. There's loads of things to keep things ticking perfectly, like heat exchange systems and solar accumulators. It can be as simple, or as extravagant as you like and your budget allows.

It's genuinely incredible. In the UK 50-55 million tyres are waste annually, they can't be sent to landfill, and we send most of our rubber and plastic waste overseas so it doesn't count in our carbon footprint, and it's regularly not recycled or disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. This is such a brilliant alternative use for them!

One of the homes, the Phoenix, is completely off grid and frankly stunning, even if it's not entirely to my taste. And it's for sale right now. Check it out:

It's ridiculous and wonderful and beautiful and full of weird and incredible things. And it's made of tyres and cans and bottles.

There are so many different Earthships, full of wonderful things. My favourites are the glass bottle walls. They're so beautiful.

I think you can probably understand why I love them so much, and why I want one of my own so much.

If you want better information about the entire process, these are a few links:

The Earthship Originator

Earthship Biotecture

The first and as far as I know only UK Earthship

Earthship Brighton

Earthship in Brittany featured on Grand Designs