Background
My interest in creating such a unit was spurred in 2005 when I traveled with a group of Texas teachers to China. This experience had a huge impact on me. Questions as to where the energy and water will come from for cities of 30+ million people were constantly confounding me. What about trash disposal? People are leaving the countryside in huge numbers for what appears to be a better way of life in the cities. The Chinese government is trying to discourage this migration. When our group traveled to a mountain village to visit the local school I noticed that there were few large trees in the area. I also noticed that the homes that we visited were built of mud: adobe as it is called in the American Southwest. Some of the homes were set back into hillsides and we even visited people who were living in caves.
My mind was reeling with ideas. I have long been a fan of the Earthship houses created by Michael E. Reynolds of Taos, New Mexico. These homes use limited wood products. A large portion of the building material is soil. The village we visited experiences extreme cold in wintertime. Earthships can operate off of the grid through the use of solar energy. No fuel is required for heating, thus preserving limited wood and petroleum resources. Passive solar energy heats the homes. There are various alternatives for producing electricity within the Earthships including battery stored energy through the use of photovoltaic cells and wind turbines. The back and side wall mass of the structure is created by packing earth into used tires. China, with its millions of people turning to the use of automobiles, will have an enormous environmental problem when it comes to discarding used tires. Areas of northern and central China are very dry. Earthships are designed to collect water from the sky for household use. I came back wanting to share my experiences and impressions with my students.
My trip to China stimulated new ideas as to how to approach the study of energy. Energy availability and its attendant problems such as sustainability and pollution are issues of importance around the globe. Not everyone can afford to buy or build a home. This is the world my students will inherit. Through this unit they will be introduced to various architectural alternatives, including the Earthship, which address these issues. My classes will be asked to consider which ideas are feasible and which need improvement. Which of these housing alternatives would they be willing to try? Do they think they would work in the countries their families come from? We have a large immigrant population at our school. While the majority of our students are of Mexican and Central American background, we usually have between thirty and forty countries represented each year. I want them to understand the implications these changes could have, not only in the industrialized USA but, in emerging and third world nations.
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