Earthship houses
 

"Earthship", what it is:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=3ENIhmDskmY&feature=fvw

a house that is self-powered, has it's own water system so no water bills, actually.....you can build this house anywhere and you don't need to hook up to any system and have no house bills what so ever.
it's more resistant to earthquakes and other disasters
you can have professionals build it like a regular house.... or you can build it yourself

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship

you can live for free:
https://youtube.com/user/earthship


there is a city full of these houses in New Mexico

Garbage Warrior (2007), the movie:
source 1:
http://www.freemoviestheatre.com/wat...yaW9y&showAd=0

source 2:
http://tvshack.net/movies/Garbage_Warrior__2007_/

1. passive solar home made of natural and recycled materials
2. thermal mass construction for temperature stabilization.
3. renewable energy & integrated water systems make the Earthship an off-grid home with

I've seen some of those on various "green" tv shows and such and they can be impressive.

Using simple things like thermal mass, prevailing winds, smart landscape and such. A lot of ideas anyone could use.

interesting, must look more into it, i always say that termal potential must be used

I'm more down for houses made from shipping containers

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

For someone who wants to build it yourself, construction plans start at $5,500. What an affordable price. These earthships amaze me - walls are made from recycled materials such as tires and metal cans. The toilet is flushes with water you just used to take a bath. It is environmentally friendly.

The idea of a mortgage displeases me - what a huge debt. It's a debt some people pay off their whole life, isn't it? What about mortgage scams? You have to be careful.