Earthships have been around for 40+ yrs in the Taos & Santa Fe areas of New Mexico. Dennis Weaver (TV's McCloud) was a proponent of the idea and lived in a modified version of an earthship for years. There are so many alternative building methods and materials available to home builders these days its kinda of hard to just pick one concept.
A poster mentioned Container homes, I had the opportunity to modify a shipping container into a registration office/snack bar for a youth sports organization facility. The experience gave me a true appreciation for the container form factor and the positive benefits of the standardized sizes and modularization.
A few container related links:
Various examples -
http://weburbanist.com/2008/05/26/ca...s-and-offices/
Temp housing -
http://www.tempohousing.com/
A project page -
http://www.softstainless.com/
Shipping container hostel -
http://users.lia.net/neweden/container.htm
Container assoc. blog -
http://www.isbu-info.org/
Architects project -
http://demariadesign.com/1/index.php...55&It emid=27