NDC’s Karla Brent Spent September at Earthships Academy

Our team member, Karla Brent spent September at Earthships Academy learning extensive
educational and training on off-grid design principles, construction methods, and philosophy.

Earthships are passive solar earth shelters made of both natural and upcycled materials. The walls of Earthships are constructed out of used tires and rammed dirt. Because
there aren’t many options for recycling or reusing car tires, in our car-dependent world there’s a constant supply of old and used tires getting sent to landfills. Why not give them a second purpose in the walls of buildings?

In Earthships, the tires are packed with dirt and stacked up in a running bond pattern, similar to a brickwork pattern. The walls are later finished in adobe, encapsulating the tires
in earth. The thick mass of the tire walls help maintain a constant comfortable temperature in the building. They’re considered “mass walls” which absorb the sun’s heat during the day and release it slowly at night when it’s cooler.

This is a passive method for heating and cooling, meaning it does not rely on mechanical systems (AC units, furnaces, etc.) or energy from the grid. The design team explored
integrating thermal mass in the design for one of our studio space projects as we’re always looking for ways to innovate and offer low environmental impact solutions for our Arts Space Technical Assistance (ASTA) projects.