Disaster Homes

By Mark McConville

THESE homes could be our best hope for survival should a nuclear war break out.

These Eco houses built to survive natural disasters could keep you safe during Armageddon – if you can afford the princely sum of $1.5million.

Stunning pictures show the alien-looking exteriors of these houses, known as Earthships, as well as a wall built from tyres and the food-producing greenhouse that is a feature in each unit.

The snaps show the community built by Earthship Biotecture for post-disaster survival and are so self-sufficient they could reverse the effects of climate change, according to the company.

“Our houses would work during and post disaster,” said Agate, a spokesperson for the company.

“Our buildings resist earthquakes, typhoons and even fire. We want to emphasise how strong they are. Ponded tyres are so strong and the house provide you with all necessary need for human to survive. Earthship is an eco-system in itself.

“The purpose of the homes is to make people self-sufficient and the house itself takes care of them. The house provides people with shelter, energy, fresh water, food and waste disposal -sewage and garbage.

“Human way of life is threatening the planet and you can see the result in strong weather changes and natural disasters.

“Earthships could reverse climate change if build on a big scale and people living in Earthship are safer, so we should build them in priority in affected areas.”

Despite supposedly making you ‘bill free for the rest of your life’ these Earthship homes don’t come cheap.

The Phoenix Earthship is for sale for $1.5million and comes with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.

The Picuris Earthship comes slightly cheaper at $515,000 and boasts two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a two-car garage.

If you don’t fancy spending this much, older Earthships are for sale for around $100,000.

Earthship Biotecture are a green architectural movement that took root in the desert of New Mexico forty years ago.

That’s when Michael Reynolds, 69, began experimenting with building homes out of garbage and natural materials that he called “Earthships”.

So just what is different about these homes from normal houses? Everything, according to Agate.

“This is why we are doing “BIO-tecture” opposed to Architecture,” he said.

“We are an evolved concept of housing, more organic, using the nature and the biology as a supreme model of living in harmony with the planet earth.

“Conventional houses make you spend money – to build it, to warm it, to cool it, to add water to it or electricity and gas.

“Our homes make you bill free for the rest of your life: you harvest your own water, your own energy and produce your own food.”

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