Earthships are a form of radically self-sufficient housing pioneered by architect Michael Reynolds in the 1970s. Built from reclaimed materials such as used tires, bottles, and cans, packed with earth for thermal mass, these structures were conceived as off-grid ecosystems—homes that could generate their own power, harvest their own water, and regulate temperature without reliance on conventional infrastructure.
The design combines passive solar heating, rainwater catchment, graywater reuse, and greenhouse spaces for food production. An Earthship is not only a shelter but a closed-loop system, a prototype for surviving in desert climates, on the fringes of society, or even on other planets. Reynolds referred to them as “biotecture,” an architecture that learns directly from ecological cycles rather than industrial grids.
Many Earthships can be found clustered outside Taos, New Mexico, where Michael Reynolds established an entire community of them across the desert mesa. This site also hosts the Earthship Academy, a program where participants study biotecture through hands-on construction, lectures, and field experience. Visitors encounter not only individual houses but a landscape of experimental dwellings, each testing variations of thermal mass, water systems, and solar design. Taos has become both a proving ground and pilgrimage site for those drawn to the possibility of building a life off-grid with the scraps of an industrial society.
Images from Earthship Biotecture, Wallpaper Magazine, Adrift Aesthetic, Earthship Eco Homes, and Atlas Obscura.
