Grand Designs - Earthship - 02/03/09

[anarchistinslippers]

Did anyone else see this? I've just downloaded it from Channel 4's "On Demand" service and have started watching it. Basically it's a house made out of recycled materials. I would love to live in such a place, but will probably never have the money I'll let you know what I think after I've watched it all. In the mean time, if you haven't seen it, download it for free and do so! (http://www.channel4.com/4od) I reckon we could get quite a discussion going on here!

(To be honest I usually carnt stand this program. Poor little rich people whinging and whining about how their free range glass from Peru hasn't arrived yet and they'll have to make do with the French GM equivalent - and little Sebastian and Patricia are so homesick for Dorking and so on, but for once it looks like it might actually be quite an interesting, inspirational and important, piece of programming )

[Millymollymandy]

Is this the Brittany one? I've only just started watching it as I recorded it but there's been plenty of discussion on Brittany forums.

[Big Al]

Is this the Brittany one? I've only just started watching it as I recorded it but there's been plenty of discussion on Brittany forums.

I think it is the brittany one where it is made out of tyres etc. One thing that was espoused was that it wouldn't have any extra heating but in one shot towards the end there is a wood burner in the corner. I actually like the programme as there seem to be a lot more eco houses being shown all be it £500,000 type homes but hell we can all dream until the lottery comes in.

[anarchistinslippers]

It is the Brittany one, yes. I've not seen all of it yet (I had a meeting to go to on my day off AND late evening - Grr!!) but it looks pretty promising so far. At least the couple appear to be down to earth anyway.

[Millymollymandy]

I'll watch a bit more later - had the bright idea to set up the 'gathering dust' old telly and video in front of my exercise bike in our office - got so bored of pedalling staring at the bookshelves so now I'm catching up with telly progs that I missed cos everything is on an hour later here and I zonk out on the sofa too early!

[jim]

Dear Anarchistinslippers,

Yeh I saw it and agree that the people shown didn't seem to suffer from the urge to name children Tobias and Jocasta as so many on that show appear to. They were from Brighton which has a history of Earthship building, the first being at Stanmer Park:-

http://www.lowcarbon.co.uk

and a development of low cost housing at the marina:-

http://www.brightonbusiness.co.uk/htm/n ... 474983.htm

which was in conjunction with Chichester diocise. These seem to have overcome the design problems of those built at Taos in New Mexico in the 1970s:-

http://www.sangres.com/newmexico/taos/earthship.htm

The houses look beautifully organic, are, as far as possible, offgrid and mine the waste products of our destructive culture to good use. I'd love one!

Love and Peace
Jim

[Clara]

I I actually like the programme as there seem to be a lot more eco houses being shown all be it £500,000 type homes but hell we can all dream until the lottery comes in.

Edited by MMM to say that I never said that which is quoted above, it was said by Big Al !!!

Oh this kind of stuff is really getting my goat this morning - not you Big Al, but the designer green BS! I was reading a comment piece on the guardian last night about how we should all go without loo roll but the guy was saying that we should all install expensive shower attachments on our loos to do this - NO! tap, bottle, old bits of cloth will suffice. No wonder people get so disenchanted and alienated!

Anyway back OT, earthships are fab, especially as we have no other way of using all those tyres effectively. The future of green building has to be affordable and that probably means living in unconventional structures such as earthships or the simon dale hobbit house. Keeping it simple rather than trying to maintain "normality".

[theabsinthefairy]

We watched this the other night, and I was mostly interested in the insulation material made from old plastic bottles - now that seemed to be a really good idea, but have not researched it yet in terms of how and how much energy consumed to recycle etc etc.

The people looked OK, compared to some of the ridiculous types that have appeared on there.

As for the tyres - when we started our renovation we had never heard of earth ships or the like, but our septic tank is an earthship then , because that is what it is encased in.

The dirt that came out of the hole - which my hubby and I dug by hand (and shovel), was piled up, then the tyres from the local garage went around the tank, and we filled them with the dirt, and now grow artichokes and pumpkins on the site, so you would never even know it was there, except for the rock that marks the cover. For an area of -25 c winters we had to be sure of creating a nonfreezing environment for the tank, when you consider we are on bedrock at about 1.5 m below ground, so cannot sink anything further down than that without using dynamite.

On the whole, I think that this was one of the better Grand Designs - loved the bathroom, not so keen on the glass bottles in the walls, envied the huge bank of solar panels - which did not receive a mention - but could not reconcile the coned slate covered building with the flat roof next to it.

[Green Aura]

Not seen it yet - does it live up to the standard set by Ben Law?

[growingthings]

Not seen it yet - does it live up to the standard set by Ben Law?

In a word.....no.

But they are two totally different types of house.

[Kerlapin]

Hi there we new on here!

Thought I better comment on this because we dont live far from the home in discussion, we watched from a distance as it took shape. There has been lots of talk on the local forums about the home and programme.
It is much better as a building than you would think from the programme, my only personal reserve is I not sure about the flat roof, I have seen several of these modern roofing materials go wrong later on in life.

[Millymollymandy]

Isn't it funny because the discussions I saw on the Brittany forums were very negative - i.e. they did not source their materials locally but brought them in from abroad. Haven't watched it all so I don't know that yet of course, just repeating what others said. Also it seems their total budget was about double what he stated at the beginning of the programme, but hey what's new - we all know you should double your budget!!!

[Mrs Moustoir]

One of the forums had a really long, largely negative thread on the subject but it has been modified to read quite differently now.
In fact, it just refers people to the couple's website!

It did appear that most of the materials and expertise were shipped in from the UK although the wooden windows looked very much like ones you can buy from the French brico/diy shops. It was nice to see a local roofer doing the slate tile bit of the roof but a shame the rest of the roof was flat.

[contadino]

Expat websites are IME only used by people with too much time on their hands, so degenerate into constant sniping and point-scoring.

Some of the high tech materials come from companies all over Europe, but the main construction materials (tyres, beams, dirt & rock) were sourced locally. It's clear to see what comes from where from their website, and there's nothing there that contradicts what the programme claimed.

It's all so easy in the age of the internet to sit on our computers bitching. It seems if we're not moaning about how decent housing is financially out of our reach, we're getting all green-eyed and moaning about how someone achieved it but did it wrong.

The house was great. They should be proud of themselves. I'd be proud of myself if I were in their shoes, and I wouldn't give a hoot what anyone else thought.

[Big Al]

I I actually like the programme as there seem to be a lot more eco houses being shown all be it £500,000 type homes but hell we can all dream until the lottery comes in.

Edited by MMM to say that I never said that which is quoted above, it was said by Big Al !!!

Oh this kind of stuff is really getting my goat this morning - not you Big Al, but the designer green BS! I was reading a comment piece on the guardian last night about how we should all go without loo roll but the guy was saying that we should all install expensive shower attachments on our loos to do this - NO! tap, bottle, old bits of cloth will suffice. No wonder people get so disenchanted and alienated!

Anyway back OT, earthships are fab, especially as we have no other way of using all those tyres effectively. The future of green building has to be affordable and that probably means living in unconventional structures such as earthships or the simon dale hobbit house. Keeping it simple rather than trying to maintain "normality".

Awww I'm dissapointed now... always happy to upset people and get their goats.... or pigs... or sheep....lol.