Greenhead Moss Community Nature Park

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Greenhead Moss Earthship - a visitor, volunteer and community centre for our park

Our Earthship was burnt down by vandals in March 2010.

It will not be re-built.

Our earthship just before the fire, March, 2010.
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What is an earthship?
Earthships were invented by architect Michael Reynolds in New Mexico, USA. (See links page for his website with lots of inspiring earthship designs and opportunities around the world). Our earthship is based on Michael's original earthship concept.
Earthships are built using recylced and re-used materials, mainly used car tyres, cans and bottles.  The construction utilises the tyres, walls and a large earth mound or berm to act as a 'heat store' . They have large glass fronts and are always south facing to catch the maximum energy from the sun to provide light, heat as well as solar energy for the building.
Power:
They are powered by renewable energy - wind and solar in our case. They are completely 'off grid' generating it's own power, collecting it's own water and dealing with it's own waste. The power generated from solar and wind is stored in large battery banks and used when needed.
Water and waste:
Water is collected from the large sloping roof, filtered and stored in tanks and used to flush the toilet, wash dishes and once, filtered several times, for drinking. Waste water from the sinks are used to water plant beds within the earthship. The plants then prodvide oxygen inside the building. Waste water from this area then goes towards the toilets and is used for flushing the toilets. Waste from the toilets goes into another bed outside the earthship and is 'processed' by plants there. 
Earthships are therefore 'zero carbon' buildings, no public services are utilised on the site. (For financial reasons, we are having mains water into our earthship but will be monitoring and using a minimal amount of this).
Working or living in an earthship is not very different from other buildings but it does make you more aware of your energy consumption and the great power of the sun and earth to provide a comfortable home or workplace.
Find out for yourself by visiting the completed earthship in Kinghorn, Fife or volunteering to help us build ours! You're also welcome to drop in and watch us work. Ours will be completed by autumn 2009.

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John Edge's tool for measuring the batter of the wall.

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Volunteers, staff and Earthbuilds Crew at the end of a sunny days work, June 2009.

How are they built?
Earthships are simple designs and the skills required to build them can be learnt very quickly. Some specialist contractors will be used for the installation of electrical, power and plumbing but earthships can largely be built with volunteer labour.

The build process in 10 easy steps!...
  1. Level platform onwhich to build and lay insulated floor
  2. Insert heavy duty membrane around the whole building
  3. Layout a U-shape using car tyres then ram earth into the tyres gradually buildling up the height of the walls
  4. Arrange water tanks, filtration beds and general plumbing
  5. Build non-structural walls, fit wooden roof with membrane and drain for collecting water
  6. Attach mesh to tyres and fill gaps with cans, bottles and mortar
  7. Cover mesh with 'adobe' clay based plaster
  8. Finish walls, flooring, fit doors and windows
  9. Finalise plumbing & electrical fittings
  10. Test systems and open with a grand party!

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The 'buildling blocks' of an earthship are tyres rammed with earth

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French TV crew filming the glass cutting bench, August, 2009.

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Long term volunteer Jane insulating the thermal berm.

Interested in building an earthship?
Even though we are not re-building our earthship, there are others getting built throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
The best way to find out about whats happening and where is to contact Kevan Trott at Earthbuilds Europe. You can do this via their website:

Earthbuilds Europe Consultancy

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Earthbuilds crew finishing the roof, March 2010

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Earthbuilds crew checking tyre wall bond levels, May, 2009.

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View from below the roof, August, 2009.
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Our earthship under construction, Autumn, 2009.