Taos III

Earthships is a community of earth-sheltered homes built of recycled materials, with the objective of being totally off-grid and self-sustainable.  It's located 12 miles northwest of Taos and has 75 homes with enough space for 75 more.  The visitor center has a film about the building process and infrastructure.  The Earthships people have built demonstration homes in numerous foreign countries.

Entrance to the visitor center is creative, with lots of glass bottles built into the walls.

The rest of the structure is basic, a simple design for a small home.  

The walls are made of old tires filled with compacted dirt.

Hands down winner of the Butt Ugly Award.  It's next door to the visitor center.  

True, it's a work in progress and ultimately may be absolutely gorgeous.

Given its current appearance, however, that's highly unlikely.

This is the standard, basic model, same as the visitor center.

I've been a fan of earth-sheltered homes for some time; they make a lot of sense.  I researched them at length in the 70s and 80s, was intending to have one built but never did.  Main problem was having to go well outside the urban area where CCRs weren't an obstacle.  My work locations were typically in or near downtown, and long commutes never appealed to me.

The Earthships approach, used tires filled with rammed earth, may be the most eco-sensitive of the various earth-sheltered designs.  Millions of used tires accumulate every year, can't use them all on tug boats, barges and cover-weights for piles of livestock fodder.

Not your mother's earth-sheltered home.

Earthship home designs tend to be either basic and boring or 'out there.'

They don't have to be either one, though.  There are plenty of  tasteful designs, and given the flexibility of the building materials, the sky's the limit.  'Out there' or not, tasteful or not, gotta admit I get a kick out of the above design, would love to see the inside of it.

Meanwhile, back in Taos.

A pair of odd ducks.

Finally, a PS add-on to the previous post wherein I commented about the major sites in and around Taos.  The Taos Pueblo is considered a must-see in our guidebook and Trish agrees.  She toured the Pueblo one day during my siesta.  It's in great shape despite its age and the Natives obviously take pride in keeping up its appearance.  There are darn few, if any, vintage pueblo structures - other than Taos Pueblo - that are 3 stories high.

Taos Pueblo.