The first ‘Earthship’ in Florida

Surrounded by commercial farms on Highway 64 and wetlands, a new home emerges, one that is sustainable and affordable — built out of garbage. Many builders and environmentalists say trash may be the new brick because it reduces landfills and it is affordable. A green dream comes true  The landfill becomes a treasure; garbage a useful product for a Tampa couple who has dreamed about owning environmentally friendly home for about 20 years. The new home would create utility and food for its inhabitants and it would produce no waste product. The bricks are used tires, recycled glass bottles and aluminum soda and beer cans. The Pfalzers purchased a 10-acre lot in Myaka City to build an Earthship inspired by green builder Michael Reynolds. They first heard about the Earthship at a Johnny Carson show back in the 80’s, says Michael Pfalzer. “We liked the self sufficiency and other features of the home, including getting water from the rain, not relying so much on electric to maintain the temperature,” he said. “We wanted to reduce our footprint on the Earth.” They started to gather used tires in September 2006, says Denise Pflazer. “The tire wall is part of the main design of the Earthship,” said Denise. “The Earthship is a rammed earth house and the used tires hold the compacted dirt in.” Contractor Bryan Roberts met the Pfalzers through a mutual contact at Sweetwater Organic Farm. “Michael Reynolds wanted to build an Earthship in Florida but he told me he did not have the time to sit around and wait for the permit,” said Roberts. He added Florida is one of the top two states for difficulty and stringent building codes. Roberts had the time to wait for the building permits and took over the project. The Pfalzers’ wishes become a reality: their home is being built entirely from recycled materials. Their home would also be their business: the garden would provide food and they would pay nothing for utility bills. Roberts promises a hurricane proof, self-sustainable, off-grid house without utilities connected to it. The price of the home is $300,000, which runs line in line with the price of a traditional frame home. He adds that the 3,000-square-foot house will not look like tire and glass when finished. At the end, they berm the walls with earth and it will look more like and underground structure protected by the wind, while four domes on the roof reduce the uplift of the roof. A one-of-a-kind home Over 40,000 bottles, 40,000 aluminum cans and 1,700 tires will go into the construction of the home, says Roberts. Used in a honeycomb shape, these “bricks” reduce the amount of cement used in the masonry walls and keep them from the landfill. The walls of the house are tires filled with dirt and stacked on each other. “When filled with dirt, one tire weights over 300 pounds,” says Roberts. “We will be berming earth on the outside of the 30 inch thick wall. The wall over 9 feet thick outside of the home creates a thermal mass making it easy to influence the temperature inside the home.” They use recycled materials and reuse them again in the construction. A glass-grinding machine will turn the unused glass into substitute for the cement. The soy-based foam roof is designed to harvest rain-water into underground tanks. The water will be stored underground and filtered and recycled according to its end use. “We will be using the water five times before it’s cleaned

and returned to the Earth,” Roberts said. The Earthship coexists with nature: the filtered water from the home will run to the wetlands and will nourish plants, and some plants will filter water back in the home. Solar panels will provide the electricity. One of the most innovative features of the home are the constructed wetlands, the grey water system and the water system in the home, Roberts says. Except the water from the toilet, the water from the house will run into constructed wetlands and will become water for edible plants — bananas, cucumbers, tomatoes. Home is a community project   The first Earthship in Florida will be completed in about nine months and it will teach the community new tricks in building and sustainable living, says Roberts. The construction site becomes a lab for those who want to learn more about sustainable living. Permaculture gardening courses and other workshops are offered on site. “We decided that we will turn this project into a learning experience for the people,” Reynolds says. “We got involved with a lot of local universities and we have a lot of volunteers and interns who participate in this project because they want to learn about natural building. “ Using the social media, they connect with other people with similar ideas and projects. “Ideas are important because innovation happens when people share ideas,” Roberts said. “We want to connect a real-world application with some really good ideas, expand on that vision and instill that into other people.” The builder   Bryan Roberts is a pragmatic who dreams and builds green. He says green is part of who he is. He grew up on a farm in Tennessee and he learned to repair equipment from his grandfather, an engineer for the US Army’s core of engineers and using common sense. “When we had a problem on the farm, we solved it without throwing money at it,” he said. Because of the hard winters, they built a solar water heater they used to warm up water for cattles. They also used water from the washing machine to water our garden. “We didn’t do it because it was sustainable but because it made good sense,” he said. Roberts says he may build other Earthships in Florida because “green can be done inexpensively if you apply common sense.” “In order to make a difference with sustainable technology, it has to be within reach of the average home buyer,” he explains. “We use a more common sense approach to building taking in consideration site orientation and the building materials that we use.” The future is in building affordable green homes, he says. “For a long time in Florida, we build as much as we can and as fast as we can,” he continues. “We build a box; we put it on the lot without any consideration of the sun, without any consideration of the wind because air conditioning has been cheap. But that is changing.” He is also building simultaneously an affordable multi-home development using used shipping containers, contemporary architecture featuring a lot of the innovative systems used in the Earthips: the constructed wetland, passive solar design, the thermal mass. Green building goes far beyond bamboo floors and low VOC paint, Roberts said. “It is a philosophy in the whole system,” he added. For more information about the Earthship, click here. To find out more about the Earthship Project in Florida, click here.  

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The first ‘Earthship’ in Florida

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