Invasion of the Earthships

Kevan Trott and wife Gillian

The London Sunday Express made a big deal out of Kevan Trott and his French earthship, calling it “the first residential Earthship in Europe.” The design pioneered in Taos uses old tyres and bottles to create a fully recycled home. The word “earthship” derives from the fact that not only does the shape of these semi-submerged properties resemble a ship, and they are also self-contained vessels.

The property will be available to rent from May, but in fact it is not the first residential European earthship by a long way. The author personally helped build two others, one in Spain and one in Portugal, and knows of others in the UK, Greece and Ireland.

But it may be the first Earthship in Europe with planning permission. Trott has a hellish time in the UK before winning permission for a dense development of 16 permanent residential Earthships after he was part of a team which built a showhome Earthship in Brighton. A similar project in Perth also has non residential status.

The French Earthship is in Ger, Normandy.” He bought 1,250 sq m for .6,000 (£4,400). “I couldn’t believe it was so cheap in Ger. I was given permission to build our earthship in November 2006, a single-storey home with a passive solar system that converts sunlight into heat and power and two 5,000-litre rain and used water filtration cisterns, so I could be free from utility bills.” Not only that but the home is also built almost entirely of recycled materials. The only concession Kevan has made to modern technology has been a sophisticated solar system bought from America, and a telephone line.

Can you imagine approaching a mortgage company to ask for money to build a home out of old tyres? But they said yes.” The French “notaire” (solicitor) didn’t seem to mind either and the mayor was in full support of Kevan’s project. Seventy locals even turned up to see him make his presentation.

Kevan spent the next three months shuttling between Brighton and France seeking out the best quality secondhand materials. He bought 750 tyres from a recycling tyre yard half an hour from the property, 10,000 wine and beer bottles, 1,500 aluminium cans and “wardrobes” of recycled clothing, which he used for insulation.

He used off-cuts of granite and marble for flooring in the communal areas sourced from a local stonemason and recycled metal for the roof.

Kevan has built three bedrooms and one bathroom, a utility room which contains a washing machine and also doubles as the control room for the power module and console.

The home features a large, open-plan lounge and kitchen and big conservatory with a rain or “grey” water planter to nourish a banana tree, a lemon tree and a mandarin tree.

The house is equipped with solar panels, water pumps and recycled systems, but it has no foundations.

“The recycled tyres are the foundation, ” says Kevan. “About 50 million tyres are thrown away every year in Britain or burnt to fuel cement kilns. It’s such a waste when you think how useful they could be.”