Utopian design in society: Earthships

Earthships are sustainable houses built of recycled materials and can be built in any climate in any part of the world. They heat and cool themselves naturally through passive solar heat and thermal dynamics from the ground, they collect their own power from the sun and wind, collect their own water from rainfall and snowmelt, treat their own sewage, produce a significant amount of food, and are constructed using natural and recycled materials such as tires, plastic bottles, glass bottles, aluminum cans, and mud. From a design standpoint, earthships succeed in one of the principles of design: functionality—it works, it serves its purpose of providing a sturdy, sustainable, permanent house for people. In this most basic principle, the earthships do not need to be aesthetically pleasing when its only purpose is to provide shelter for a family in need. For example, a small earthship was built in Haiti after the earthquake, housing a family in need of permanent shelter. Many Haitians were forced to reside in temporary makeshift tents, but when the earthship was built, they were left with the knowledge of how to build a permanent home in a quick and easy way. A group of Americans went to Haiti to teach the Haitians how to build a home using objects such as used tires, bottles, and cans, in addition to steel reinforcement in order to make it sturdy and safe during earthquakes. Bringing this knowledge to underdeveloped countries such as Haiti, along with many other throughout the world, will not only help the people of these countries create safe homes that do not need to be connected to the grid, but will also help reuse waste, causing a positive environmental impact by reducing pollution. Energy consumption in dealing with waste is high, so the more earthships, the fewer byproducts of civilized society that end up in landfills.

Another design principle is aesthetics. Earthships do not merely need to be built in simple ways—they can be designed beautifully as well. In many instances, glass bottles are used in mosaic patterns on the outer walls of the house, creating a beautiful feature on the exterior, or even interior, of the house. Many earthships contain indoor greenhouses in which the owner can grow plants and vegetables. This feature is important for the sustainable aspect of the house of producing food, but having plants in the house is an aesthetically pleasing feature as well.

Earthships are a positive influence in society because they provide easy sustainable shelter for the poor, along with beautifully designed houses for others. They are utopian because they help those in need in foreign countries and increase awareness of a need to lessen garbage and waste from products of civilized society. Earthships often have tours in which one can learn about the positive influence on society and on the environment these houses have.