Buildings | Page 8 | Pangea Biotecture

Consider this when doing a Sustainable Retrofit

Sitting at home in the summer heat, your mind may start to wander to that fancy new air conditioner.

But when it comes to making your house comfortable and sustainable, prevention is better than cure. By prevention we mean simple retrofits that will set you on the path to comfort and sustainability.

As we spend more than ever on maintaining and improving our homes, we’re also becoming more aware of how their design and use impact on our health and society. Add to this climate change and rising energy costs.

edmonton-alberta-canada-earthship-greenhouse

These walls systems are all solid walls made out of dense materials, of which the modern Brick, Block and poured concrete walls are the most common variety. Since these common variants are all have very low R-values, a fairly high embodied energy, and are familiar to most people, this discussion is about alternatives to those. … Read more

10 Beautiful ‘Off The Grid’ Homes

Off-grid A-frame home at night beside a stone-edged natural pond

Big cities and luxuries aren’t for everybody. If you’re someone who enjoys the outdoors and a simple life, maybe its time to consider moving off the grid. Its not just for criminals anymore. The Homes and Garden TV network has a show where regular couples and families looking for an adventure rent or buy a … Read more

Are Earthships The Ultimate Off Grid Solution?

▶Earthships: Living Off The GridPlay video · loads YouTube What is an Earthship? An Earthship is a type of passive solar house that is made of both natural and upcycled materials (such as earth-packed tires). Earthships can be completely off-grid or partially off-grid. Earthships can be built in any part of the world, in any climate (with a permit) and still … Read more

Packaged Earthship Model

A very simple and economical version of the Earthship concept in terms of construction and building. Pre-designed drawings and partially prefabricated construction packages available. It can be adapted to any climate It comes in any size It comes as a split level for stepping up a hill North/south dimensions cannot change but east/west can be as long as … Read more

Simple Survival Earthships

The Simple Survival Model Earthship evolved from the very basic prototype we constructed in Haiti. The purpose of the original Haiti build was to reevaluate the concept of necessity. No matter how well the “developed world” Earthship prototypes worked, they were absolutely out of the budget of what could be achieved in Haiti. This caused us to take life … Read more

Vaulted Roof Earthship

Two-bedroom, Two-bathroom Vaulted Global Model Earthship. The latest Earthship design. Better, more efficient in terms of performance and construction. Fits better into the hands of the people. Its load-bearing walls are made of discarded tires filled with sledgehammer-rammed dirt, lined up and stacked eight feet high to form a U-shaped wall that could stop a truck in its tracks (which you certainly … Read more

Earthship buildings are fire resistant, not a total loss.

The Question of how a structural earth-rammed tire wall would do in a fire has long been an issue for which we could only offer an intelligent opinion. People think that because tire piles in tire dumps burn so easily and are so hard to put out, that an earth-rammed tire wall would be the same. Our answer has been to compare a … Read more

Global Model Earthship

This building can be modified for almost any climate and comes in many sizes. It can also come in custom sizes. It has been built enough times that it has become a well oiled machine both in terms of performance and production. It costs around $295 per sf. The construction drawings range from $5,000 to … Read more