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Illustration: Anders Persson |
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Sweden’s First Earthship
Växhuset’s latest building project is a passive solar house, an Earthship. It is based on a technique which has proven successful in the US during a few decades. The foundation is made up of used tires. The tires are packed with dirt and gravel and then plastered with dirt mixed with sand and straw for reinforcement. These building materials are reused and locally available. The building is facing south and fully exposed to the sun through large, well-insulated windows. The heat from the sun is stored in the massive walls, and will be released slowly during the night and colder days. Insulating drapes are used to prevent night time heat loss through the windows.
An Earthship is a largely self-sufficient unit. There are paralells to a spaceship or a sail boat which also has to be self-sufficient while journeying through space or across the ocean. The Earthship will get its energy from the sun and from wind power (which is also a form of solar energy). Food can be produced in the greenhouse, located immediately inside the large south-facing windows. Urine and grey water will be collected in tanks and used to feed plants in the greenhouse. Everything is taken care of and reused in order to minimize resource usage.
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Illustration: Anders Persson |
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At the bottom of the page you can see pictures from earthship projects in Colorado and New Mexico, USA. The pictures were taken by Åse Seeligson who lived for 12 years in the US and who has worked on several earthships there. She now lives in Söderhamn and will participate during the pilot project this summer.
Outside of the US, Earthships have also been built in Canada, Japan, Australia, South Africa , Bolivia, Mexico, and Russia. In Europe, one has been built in Brighton, England and another one near Edinburgh, Scotland. Our Earthship will perhaps (Alaska) be the northernmost so far. Because of our cold climate, we will make some adjustments. In the US the ground below the building is used as a thermal mass heat storage. In Sweden we will instead insulate in order to prevent heat loss to the ground. This summer we will do a pilot project and test our different solutions. The pilot project will be around 100 square metres big and hold an exhibition hall and two guest bedrooms. The outlines below are not final, but can be changed during the building process.
The escavation work at Ekocentrum began in March this year. Through cooperation with Stucab, a local education center who trains machine operators, we were able to get help with considerable escavation executed as an education project. A new parking lot was prepared south of Ekocentrum and a large amount of fill material was laid up as a foundation for the Earthship.
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The building process itself will start this summer. The walls will be built using old tires, dirt, gravel, rock and straw, while the roof will be built using wood. Solar heated water will run in tubes burried in the floors, and solar panels and wind power will provide electricity. Urine separating toilets will be installed, and water will come from both a well and from the nearby lake Edesjön.
