Taos has been on the road to sustainability since the pre-recycling days of 1971, when architect Michael Reynolds departed from traditional architectural protocols with the inclusion of bioecological features in his designs, building a house that incorporated, essentially, garbage. A graduate of the University of Cincinnati, Reynolds maintains that “there was no ‘garbage’ until modern man.” He rebelled against the restrictive ideology of his profession by wiring soft drink and beer cans together to form bricks and using them to construct his home. In doing so, Reynolds pioneered the development of off-the-grid homes called Earthships: homes using passive solar technology, wind power, recycled water, old tires, car batteries, glass bottles, and every bit of off-grid technology available.
The resulting project was the Earthships in Taos that we know today: self-sufficient dwellings built with natural and recycled materials and with energy conservation in mind. Designed to collect water and produce electricity and food for their inhabitants’ use, Earthships are defined by six basic design principles, all of which take advantage of the existing natural phenomena of the earth: building with natural and repurposed materials, using thermal and solar heating and cooling, solar- and wind-generated electricity, water harvesting, contained sewage treatment, and self-sustained food production. Today, on a sprawling mesa northwest of Taos, sits the 600+ acre Greater World Earthship Community.
Our opinion is that if it is made out of garbage, it pretty much looks like it!
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