Biotecture: Week One

Here is the power supply to the job site. Oh, for those of you who don't know what I'm doing right now, I'm enrolled in Mike Reynolds' Earthship Academy, studying Biotecture. I've enrolled to become trained and eligible for a leadership position in his army, as well as learn how to build an earthship of my own.

Last Friday we wrapped up our first week. These photos demonstrate what we've accomplished thus far. Our schedule is to be on the job from 9-4:30 (sometimes later) Mondays and Fridays. Tuesdays through Thursdays we have class with Mike and other instructors as the program progresses until 12, and then we hit the construction site until about 4:30. It makes working in the raw intensity of the high and hot desert easier for us as we acclimate.

On the left you see the stem wall, the walk way will be the vapor lock. This section will become the greenhouse of the Global Model Earthship that we are building.

In one week, we've established a fair amount of work. This week we transition from Bronze to Brains.

Looking down seven courses of pounded tires. The shovel and sledgehammer are my friends.

Seven courses of tires with four courses of packing in cement to even out the structure for doing the adobe finish. Here is one of three ventilation tubes which are part of the convection cooling system. A new development in the Global Model. They run about 30 feet buried under ground. It pulls air in, cools it down and the gravity skylights draw the hot air out from the greenhouse. It's amazing!

Here you can see two lath baskets. In the original books, they used wood blocks. These concepts are constantly evolving. They fill in the gaps where a tire won't line up, depending upon its wear and tear, and how much it expands when it gets packed. Also, each tire has to be level in two directions. Sometimes you just fuck it up some how and it can't be fixed so you throw in a lath basket.

Oh yeah, so we have a few rules in the academy. One of the rules is if you don't like the language, speak up. This is a construction site after all. Another rule, maybe number 7, don't be a bitch. People are constantly referring to rule number whatever. I don't have the numerical association memorized to each rule. They're all common sense stuff . . . maybe for a carpenter's / architect's daughter. I grew up working in the trades, working side-by-side with my dad for many years. This is old hat for me.


The photo above has a white flaccid thing hanging down. It's the water pipe that will be guiding water from two soon-to-be buried cisterns behind this north wall. We have it wrapped in paper and taped up to protect it until we start to plumb it in.

Back up supplies, waiting to be pounded. 235, 225, 215, 205. I'll never forget these numbers.

Back to the stem wall. After measuring out the green and pink line, being quadruple sure that our beam footing is perfectly lined up - because EVERYTHING is built up off of this. If this is not strung up perfectly and checked from three points, it can totally fuck up your house. But, no stress. One point of reference is this beam atop the stem wall. Once we committed to these lines (you can slightly see the trench we dug to the right), we drilled this beam to the stem.

Sorry these are out of order. I want to get these out for you before things get backed up. I'd like to have a weekly check-in so you can see the progress. Above is looking south towards the buried insulated thermal wrap and vapor barrier on the north end of the north wall. The white line leading out of the soil there is the water line that will be connected to the cisterns before we burry them under the berm.

Our cement station. Nice job site eh? What a stellar view! Who needs to go to the Playa when you can build and play in the powdery dust of the Mesa?! I have to come prepared with a bandana to cover my face, wear goggles, and a big ole sunhat to protect my brains and neck at 7,000 feet. Awesome.

Everyone has to have a shitter, and I don't mean the riser!

The entire Earthship (the Company) crew has a tradition called Freaky Friday. Every Friday everyone gets dressed up crazy and lets their freak flag fly. This photo is my normal freakish self. I brought a sack full of Burning Man outfits I made last year just in case I make it to the Playa. It doesn't look like I'll be going to BRC this year . . . Besides, I'd rather stay here! All this to say, I have the best outfits to wear to work! I'll have to get a shot or two from last week to share.


I wore my gold outfit. Two pieces of slinky gold fabric tied around my waste to make a skirt with slits going up to expose my legs to my hips. Of course I made matching bootie shorts. The top was low cut, open in the back and I wore my Playa boots with gold sparkly spats. To top it off, add my mom's scarf with the best graphics ever and my Australian hat and Jackie O sunglasses. Then add accessories: rubber gloves hanging from my hip for concrete, a tape hanging from my other hip with my other work gloves on. Add the high desert breeze and you instantly have a Construction Goddess! We've recently started breaking off into teams and people have been given and or have taken on certain leadership roles. Right now I'm holding the title of Freaky Friday Leader. Upping the entire energetic vibe of doing hard work on a Friday.


The part I love the best about that is the big ass happy smiles on peoples faces, all teeth from ear to ear, and sparkles in people's eyes. Happiness. I love that I do that!

Back to work! There's two jobs here I worked on in this shot. One was laying out the insulation and then covering it with a vapor barrier. We tapped that in with nails, made sure it was level and plumb, with a four foot overlap for a cold vapor lock and then guided the backhoe in to bury it - level and plumb. The second job is if you look closely at the shadow of the cistern, you will notice a depression. We had to figure out from the section and floor plans of the house design plans to figure out what elevation we needed to set up the cisterns so it can catch the water run off, and be below the slope of the roof. Doing some calculating, we committed to 76" elevation and dug it out by hand with shovels and pick-axes for both cisterns. The western one will be laid out to drain at the northeast corner, and the eastern one will be tilted northwest.

Here's looking at the north end of the side towards the southwest.

Stem wall again. Super important wall right here. If you didn't notice, the string and rebar are pink!

Cans don't have structural integrity but in concrete they do. Make sure they are laid upside down so bugs and water can get out. Below is the beam footer we dug out, now awaiting rebar and chairs. After it gets inspected, we'll lay concrete.

Tune in next time for a recap on week two.