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michael reynolds

Reynolds builds off-grid school

Where better to teach the next generation to be eco-friendly and self-sufficient than inside an off-grid school? This may be the future thanks to Michael Reynolds. The 70-year-old Taos-based American architect, – also known as the “garbage warrior” for his long career in building self-sufficient projects with discarded products – is the brains behind the school in Uruguay.

The brand new primary school which opened its’ classroom doors only a few months ago is Located in Uruguay,Jaureguiberry, a tiny community of 500 inhabitants an hour’s drive east of the capital Montevideo. The building is made of tires and glass and plastic bottles, is off the grid and non-polluting. The school produces no waste and has it’s very own compost-fed kitchen garden brims with basil, tomatoes, strawberries, and chard. On the roof, rainwater is collected then filtered before it is used in the garden or the toilets.

The teachers have special training so they can adapt their courses by tying them to respect for the environment and the responsible use of the building and its energy.

The school’s director comments on the energy storage unit which powers the school for all the pupils and staff: “We are doing fine, with a more than 50 percent charge only from solar energy,” said Alicia Alvarez, 51.

The school opened in March to children between the ages of three and 12, it claims to be the first public school in Latin America that is totally green. The school currently has 39 students but can accommodate 100. The project, supported by a local charity and a detergent company, is estimated to have cost $300,000, according to Uruguayan media.

The school is completely unplugged, not connected to the electricity grid in any way.

From the outside, its environmental bona fides are evident: colorful recycled tires at the entrance, solar panels covering its roofs, big windows overlooking kitchen gardens. A sight sure to put a smile on any off-gridders face!

Reynolds developed what he calls “Earthship Biotecture” — buildings designed to independently sustain human life.

He has built “Earthships” all over the world, from the US state of New Mexico (where he currently lives) and Easter Island in Chile to Ushuaia in Argentina and Sierra Leone.

“People called me an idiot: building with garbage, what a fool, you’re a disgrace to the architectural community,” he told AFP in an interview.

“You know, I was trying to contain sewage and treat it and do all of these things that architects didn’t do.”

But how did he make his latest masterpiece? It took about 2,000 tyres, 3,000 glass bottles, 1,500 plastic bottles and 12,000 cans. They were put together with wood, glass, and cement to fashion the new school.

When speaking to students at the colourful school, it was clear they were all very happy to be there.
“It’s a school full of life,” said a smiling Paula, seven, …

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People

Earthship project on CNN

Earthship

The divisive figure of Mike Reynolds of Earthship Biotecture, has been in the press again, this time on CNN. His company built 15 off-grid cliff-top homes in Taos, New Mexico. Going by CNN’s coverage you would have thought he built them all by himself – and perhaps he did.

“An Earthship is the name we have given a building or vessel that we use to live on this planet that is absolutely independent of all public and municipal utilities” says Reynolds. The homes are made from natural and other recycled materials that would otherwise go to waste. The main ingredient is old tyres from cars, which are rammed full of earth or (more costly) filled with concrete –  to create solar homes. Earthships in Taos range in price, from a relatively reasonable $250,000 to a staggering $1.5 million.

Reynolds used the publicity to talk about how government infrastructure could benefit from less of a bureaucratic approach when it comes to planning permission and urban development: “If some government or corporation was getting ready to do a city for ten thousand people, they’d spend ten years putting in infrastructure to support that city’s power and sewage….we don’t need that: if I had a thousand acres somewhere, and funding, I could start building a city tomorrow.”

Earthship Biotecture have plans to build an Earthship city, which would be far more sustainable than a modern city. An Earthship community reuses sewage for food production and landscaping and relies on solar power. One problem facing Reynolds and Earthship Biotecture is criticism from experts who say that Earthships are too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter.

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Community

Australia falling for Earthship marketers

Boasting an outer shell made of stacked car tyres packed with earth, an Earthship claims to be a cutting-edge, sustainable green home made from recycled materials. In fact there are serious design flaws: from off-gas from the tyres to overheating in ultra-hot places like Australia. All in all, having an Earthship in your life is like having a particularly sensitive pet – which needs constant feeding and excercise.
But that has not stopped shameless American architect Michael Reynolds touring Australia’s North Coast, preaching his particular brand of Earthship.
In Melbourne, he is in league with the Ceres community in Brunswick East which has a small project where you can pay to experience Earthship construction techniques. The Group, which always relied on volunteers to build its empire, has now found a marvellous new idea – get people to pay $160 ozzie dollars for a weekend ramming earth into old tyres.

Reynolds, who did not invent the Earthship concept, says its “a vessel sailing on towards tomorrow.”

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