Earthship - Europe

Europe

In 2000, Michael Reynolds and his team came to build the first residential earthship in Boingt (Belgium). While water, power module, solar panels and the team were on their way to Europe, the mayor of Boingt put his veto on the building permit. So Josephine Overeem, the woman who wanted to build the earthship, and Michael Reynolds decided to do a demonstration model in her back yard at her residence in Strombeek (Belgium). CLEVEL, invited Reynolds from Belgium to Brighton in the UK, and orchestrated plans for the earthship in Brighton, started in 2003. This was the beginning of a series of trips made by Reynolds and the construction of earthships in the UK, France and the Netherlands.

In 2004, the very first Earthship in the UK was opened at Kinghorn Loch in Fife, Scotland. It was built by volunteers of the SCI charity. In 2005, the first earthship in England was established in Stanmer Park, Brighton with the Low Carbon Trust.

In 2007, CLEVEL and Earthship Biotecture obtained full planning permission to build on a valuable development site overlooking the Brighton Marina in the UK. The application followed a successful six-month feasibility study, orchestrated by Daren Howarth and funded by the UK Environment Agency and the Energy Savings Trust. The successful application was for sixteen one, two, and three-bedroom earthship homes on this site. The homes are all designed according to basic earthship principles developed in the United States and adapted to the UK. 15,000 tires will be recycled to construct these homes (the UK burns approximately 40 million tires each year). The plans include the enhancement of habitats on the site for lizards that already live there, which is the reasoning behind entitling the project "The Lizard". This will be the first development of its kind in Europe, and successful development in Brighton may help to pave the way for similar projects around the UK and other places.

The first official Earthship home in mainland Europe with official planning permission approval was built in a small French village called Ger. The home, which is owned by Kevan and Gillian Trott, was built in April 2007 by Kevan, Mike Reynolds and an Earthship Crew from Taos. The design was modified for a European climate and is seen as the first of many for the European arena. It is currently used as a holiday home for eco-tourists.

Further adaptation to the European context was undertaken by Daren Howarth and Adrianne Nortje in Brittany, France. They obtained full planning permission in 2007 and finished the Brittany Groundhouse as their own home during 2009. The build experience and learning is elegantly captured in the UK Grand Designs series and in their book.

Meanwhile earthships have been built or are being built in Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sweden, Estonia and Czech Republic. A good overview of the earthships built in Europe can be found on the web page of European Earthship Builder United, together with information on earthships being built. A good chronological overview on the earthships built in Europe by Michael Reynolds can be found in the article 'Europe'.

The first official earthship district (23 earthships) in Europe is currently being developed in Olst (the Netherlands). Building will start in spring 2012. In Belgium, 1 earthship hybrid is also being built, intended as demonstration buildings. Since it is illegal to use tires in Belgium (for risk of leaking toxic metals like lead and zinc), The project uses sandbags to build their earthship instead.

The Earthships built in Europe by Michael Reynolds aren't always performing as promised and some show problems with moist and mould. Some research into performance was done by the University of Brighton on the Brighton Earthship. Further research to adapting all but southern parts of European climate are definitely needed.