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Greenhead Earthship - a Visitor Centre for our park
Volunteer dates for Earthship volunteers: - VOLUNTEER DATES are being
planned now and will be posted soon
- All days 9.30am - 4pm
- Bring strong footwear and a packed lunch
- If
you would like to get involved on any of these days, please get in touch.
Our earthship visitor centre will be built using:
- used car tyres rammed with earth, compacted to weigh around 70Kg each
- used steel cans and glass bottles set within non load bearing walls
- rainwater collection from the roof filtered to diferent levels for drinking, washing and flushing the toilet
- solar and wind power
- sustainable drainage systems for waste water and sewage
- wall coverings of adobe clay plaster techniques
In summary, we will be totaly 'off-grid' meaning there are no services into the site and no services out of the site. This
means minimal impact on the environment and minimal costs to run the centre.
Once completed, this building will be:
- a working example of sustainable building design;
- a meeting space for the Trust and other community groups;
- an office for staff and volunteers;
- an information and exhibition space for the Nature Park;
- an educational and activity space for schools and groups;
- a training venue for environmental and sustainable lifestyle courses;
- public toilets - at last!
If you would like to donate some soil, building materials, equipment
or your skills for our earthship project, please see our 'Support Us' page.
See our 'blog' page for more information about our progress on site.
We are grateful to the Sustainable Communities
Initiative & Fife Earthship team for their support and guidance. Thanks to Paula and her team!
| Normandy Earthship - a similar design to ours |

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What is an earthship?
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.
Find out for yourself by visiting the completed earthship
in Kinghorn, Fife. Ours will be completed by autumn 2008.

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| Placing carpet tiles in the bottom of the tyres |
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How will we build it?
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 our earthship
will largely be built with volunteer labour.
The build process in 10 easy steps!...
- Level platform onwhich to build and lay insulated floor
- Layout a U-shape using car tyres then ram earth into the tyres gradually buildling
up the height of the walls
- Insert heavy duty membrane around the whole building
- Arrange water tanks, filtration beds and general plumbing
- Build non-structural walls, fit wooden roof with membrane and drain for collecting water
- Attach mesh to tyres and fill gaps with cans, bottles and mortar
- Cover mesh with 'adobe' clay based plaster
- Finish walls, flooring, fit doors and windows
- Finalise plumbing & electrical fittings
- Test systems and open to the public!
Sound easy? Want to help?

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

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| Ramming earth into the tyres |
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Become an earthship volunteer We anticipate starting
the build in September 2008. Each day participants will have the opportunity to learn and assist in construction
methods which are specific to Earthship building such as pounding tyres to form a thermal mass wall, building non-structural
walls with bottles and cans and mixing and applying adobe plaster and many other sustainable building techniques.
To register as a Greenhead Earthship Volunteer, complete the Greenhead Moss Membership form, tick the earthship volunteering
box on the form, sign it and return it to us. We will get in touch with you soon and alert you to earthship volunteer
days and opportunities. See the 'Support Us' page to download a free membership form.
Earthship Biotecture Internships:
The Earthship Commando team from Taos, New Mexico led by Earthship inventor Michael
Reynolds offer 'internships' for trainees on earthship builds. Fees for the training are around $350
(US) per week (not including room and board). To find out more, send an email to kirsten@earthship.org or visit their website to view internship opportunities. (See our links
page for their details)
If you have already contacted Greenhead
Earthship about volunteering, we will be in touch soon with an update. If you would like to go on our e-list, please
get in touch via our e-mail (see the Contact Us page)
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