First Tornado and Fire-Resistant Earthship To Be Built in Lawrence, Kansas

Taos, New Mexico- based Earthship Biotecture has announced the construction of the first tornado and fire-resistant Earthship starting this fall. The Earthship will be a private residence and will be built just outside of Lawrence, Kansas.

The residence is part of the Earthship movement founded by architect Michael Reynolds that uses recycled and natural materials and is built on the concept of a home’s ability to provide everything to survive: shelter, power, waste management, water, and food.

The model Earthship that will be built is the tornado and fire-resistant Refuge Earthship. It is a two-bedroom, two-bathroom residence that incorporates about 1,000 scrap tires, 16,000 aluminum cans and 1,000 cardboard boxes.

Earthship Biotecture said the tires can be packed tightly with earth to create walls with substantial thermal mass that can absorb and release heat, reducing dependence on conventional heating and cooling.

Once completed, the Earthship will be powered by solar energy only, it will harvest and filter rainwater for all of its water needs, it will have its own contained sewage system and it will use insulation and natural thermal mass to stay comfortably cool in summer and warm in winter.

Earthship Biotecture said the Kansas residence is a new fire-and tornado-resistant Earthship that features four ferro-cement vaults, engineered to withstand fire and extreme winds.

These are thin, curved shelled structures made from cement mortar reinforced with steel wire mesh and rods to create strong, lightweight and cost-effective roofs and ceilings forming part of the home’s protective structure.

The design reflects the reality that sustainability alone does not make a building resilient—it also needs to withstand the environmental and weather conditions of the place where it’s built. In Kansas, that means facing powerful storms and tornadoes as well as fire.

Earthships are completely off-grid and self-sufficient, which together with their resilience to natural disasters makes them an optimal solution for sustainable building.

Earthships are built around six fundamental design principles: building with natural and repurposed materials; heating and cooling through thermal mass to create a comfortable living environment; using wind and solar energy to create electricity; harvesting and filtering rainwater to provide drinking and wash water; containing and treating its own waste water without external contamination and producing its own food in an integrated greenhouse.

The Lawrence residence will be constructed by an expert Earthship crew coming mainly from the New Mexico Earthship headquarters as well as 25 Earthship students from all over the world. The building is designed by Earthship creator Michael Reynolds, engineered by Kim Jones from JS Structural Engineers and permitted by the Douglas County building department.

“We are very excited for the construction of this fire and tornado resistant Earthship in Kansas,”  Reynolds said. “The current state of the world makes this type of building not only necessary but essential to an incredible amount of people in and outside the US.”

Reynolds said the Kansas residence represents a new type of Earthship that brings structural protection, reclaimed materials and autonomous systems together in one design for sustainable living.