Building a house out of hundreds of tonnes of dirt and old tyres might sound like a strange place to call home, but the ideas behind Earthships make them truly more than just a humble abode. For the past three years, Martin Freney, PhD student at the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design has been knocking some sense into the current eco-friendly housing market through his research on these literally out-of-this-world homes called Earthships.

1. Moving from McMansions to Earthships:
The Quest for Sustainable Housing in Australia
Building a house out of hundreds of tonnes of dirt
and old tyres might sound like a strange place to
call home, but the ideas behind Earthships make
them truly more than just a humble abode. For
the past three years, Martin Freney, PhD student
at the School of Architecture, Landscape
Architecture and Urban Design has been knocking
some sense into the current eco-friendly housing
market through his research on these literally out-
of-this-world homes called Earthships.
So, what is an Earthship?
In a nutshell, Martin describes an Earthship as the
ultimate self-sufficient home that provides and
stores all your electricity, catches and treats its own water and doesn’t require any heating or cooling. Made from
recycled materials such as tyres, bottles, aluminium cans or even salvaged sheet metal, living in an Earthship means
you can completely disconnect yourself from the grid. And those bills. Its gently contoured walls are usually rendered
in adobe or cement, cleverly concealing the choice of materials to be as conservative or kooky as you prefer. These
homes also use an indoor greenhouse to grow food and filter water for further use like flushing toilets. It pushes
solar passive design to the extreme (all glazing is north-facing) to modulate comfortable indoor temperatures year-
round.
Far removed from conventional brick and mortar,
timber-frame homes, Martin’s PhD at the
University of Adelaide is testing the theory that the
Earthship’s thermal performance stands at the top
of the sustainable housing ladder. Basically, does
all that compacted dirt in tyres actually mean that
it performs better energy-wise than any other
house we build in Australia? So far, Martin’s
research is pointing to ‘yes’.
Sounds like a magic house, right? Well, not exactly.
Martin is a firm believer that many of our current
problems in the home (remember that last
electricity bill?) and on our planet can simply be
solved by good housing design. The creator of the Earthship, architect Michael Reynolds did exactly that by
developing flexible designs where substantial parts of the home can be owner-built, without specialised skills. Many
Earthships come together in approximately five or six weeks, and are constructed by a group of volunteers, as Martin
has discovered through the enthusiasm of volunteers pitching in on his own Earthship build in the Adelaide hills.

2. Martin experienced the Earthship’s remarkable thermal
performance during his month-long summer internship
at the Earthship ‘headquarters’, the Greater World
Community in Taos, New Mexico. But it was Martin’s
last trip in winter that left the largest impression. “It was
freezing cold outside – around minus 5°C. You walk into
the Earthship’s greenhouse and it’s 30°C, then into your
living room which is 20°C. It’s incredible that those
temperatures can be achieved with no heater.”
If Martin could advertise his research on a billboard, it
would depict the Earthship greenhouse and living room
each with their comfy climes, contrasted against a chilly
outdoor temperature. And bare the slogan ‘No heater. No cooler. No problems!’ Paired with an approximate annual
energy bill of $50 (from using gas for boosting solar hot water and cooking), it does sound like common sense.
Yet why aren’t we all building environmentally friendly homes in Australia?
Considering Australians continue to build the biggest houses in the world, and pay large percentages of our hard-
earned wage towards our mortgages, heating, and cooling, it comes as no surprise that we are in a bit of a pickle.
(And we might need to do a little more than make sure we turn off the lights when we leave the room).
So why aren’t we busy constructing energy-efficient homes, rather than our oversized resource guzzlers? Perhaps
our hesitance to build eco-homes lies in the
common perception that sustainable buildings cost
more to build? In the recent report ‘Sustainability:
Who cares? A property industry survey’ released by
architecture and design firm Woods Bagot, one third
of respondents believe that sustainable buildings
cost 6 – 10% more, when in reality it is a steadily
diminishing premium of 2 – 4%. Martin considers
Earthships or other eco-homes to be potentially
cheaper, especially when your friends and family get
involved in the construction. When the ongoing
running costs (for heating and cooling) are factored
in, any additional expenses during construction are
quickly paid back.
Martin believes our slow progress with eco-building is more about a lack of awareness of building alternatives and
the benefits of living in an eco-friendly home, rather than unwillingness. “If you don’t know what the options are you
don’t have a choice. It’s an education issue. People are stuck in what the building companies churn out. No one’s
screaming about it, but they should be.” Martin says.

3. The eco-friendly housing antidote
Martin believes the remedy to our ‘resource-
dependency-itis’ starts in disconnecting from
the grid, and reconnecting to our
surroundings. “I’m not saying that building an
eco-home means you can totally escape, but
if you build a smaller house, it’s going to be
cheaper as it uses less material. If you build a
house that collects and treats its own water
and generates all of its electricity, then it’s
going to help you pay off your mortgage
quicker.” says Martin.
This doesn’t mean that we have to move into
shoe-box sized caves to save a buck. An
averaged 3 bedroom Earthship is a roomy
140m2 – 200m2, pretty good considering it can even grow your food indoors! (That’s more than I can say for my
house which just grows mould and a decidedly unhappy ‘Happy Plant’). And it goes further than pure economical
savings...Imagine living in a home that you are connected to, not the grid. You control it through your behaviour to
make it run effectively, rather than the home being connected to distant, abstract resources that seem to be limited
only by your ability to pay the utility bills.
“Put yourself in an Earthship, or any off-grid home and you start paying attention, or else you won’t be able to turn
on the TV because you left the lights on and drained your batteries. It’s that simple. We have to conserve resources,
and we’ve forgotten how to do that.” Martin says.
Thankfully, living in an off-grid home doesn’t mean we have to sacrifice lifestyle- it’s more a matter of adapting our
collection and usage of resources like water and electricity. We can still enjoy our mod-cons like high-speed Internet
and wide-screen TV, just without taxing our planet and hip-pockets. “An interesting thing about the Earthship is the
user behaviour, you have to actually learn how to sail it as such.” Martin says. In fact, owning a well-designed,
sustainable home with minimal utility bills could even mean that you don’t have to head off to work so often.
Building an eco-friendly home in an urban Australian environment
Martin grew up in a regular home in the suburbs, which didn’t have any particularly eco-friendly credentials, but he
did draw some inspiration from his family beach house. It was oriented north to let the sun through in winter, and
shaded by vines in summer. Martin began his journey into sustainable design after completing a permaculture
course in the late nineties through The Food Forest in South Australia. Since then, Martin has built his own eco-
friendly straw bale home in the Adelaide Hills. So what advice does Martin have for people who would like to build
or renovate in the suburbs?
“The low hanging fruit is facing your house north (in the southern hemisphere), and ensure you have the appropriate
eaves to shade your house in summer, and let the sun in during winter. Other beneficial options are to install a solar
hot water heater and solar panels, and double glaze where you can.” says Martin. A relatively simple option is to
build your house ‘reverse brick veneer’, putting the bricks on the inside of your home, then insulating and cladding

4. with materials such as weatherboard or rendered blueboard on the outside. This clever reversal of traditional
materials means your house will be better insulated from the fluctuations of outside temperatures.
Michael Reynolds has also begun designing a two-storey Earthship for more compact environments, altering the
‘earth-berm’ and insulation, and thus the need for long, north-facing blocks. Martin is encouraged that someday we
may see Earthships ‘landing’ in the ’burbs.
Until then, Martin will be completing his PhD, extending his organic fruit and vegetable garden using permaculture
design principles, and holding workshops at his Earthship, which he plans to open as a bed and breakfast. All
between building on his research, pitching in on a local Earthship construction in Kinglake, Victoria, before moving
onto potential projects in Sydney and Vanuatu. Sounds like a man on an Earth-bound mission.
Words: Lauren Grantham
Online Media Team
Faculty of the Professions
lauren.grantham@adelaide.edu.au
This article provides an overview of sustainable houses in Australia, with a particular focus on Earthship homes.
For further information on Martin Freney’s PhD and the School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban
Design, please visit The University of Adelaide