- Earth Shelter, builder unknown taken from http://conted.colorado.edu/programs/independent-learning/sustainable-practices/
Get ready for a woowoo post!
With each passing year, I’m becoming crunchier. It’s sort of a weird awakening, but that’s exactly what I feel is happening to me. I’m waking up to the world around me and realizing that each individual is responsible for the earth’s safekeeping so that future generations of people will thrive. I had an epiphany this morning – talking about the environment is for some people like talking about religion or politics. It can get heated or ignored all together. My apologies in advance if you are tired of hearing about the environment – fair warning to read no further.
I have some really big ideas right now – I would love to build an earth shelter somewhere in Colorado in about 3 – 4 years time frame. After talking with an architect friend of mine, the trick would be to find a county with an open minded building zoning commission. Here in Colorado, I would think that would include many mountain communities or Boulder. Some parts of Colorado do embrace alternative building techniques including geo-domes, straw bale homes, cob structures, earth shelters and more. I’ve been doing a lot of research lately and have a stack of books piled high on my coffee table, including several written by Dan Chiras who happens to have built his own earth shelter nestled in the hills of Evergreen, CO just 40 minutes from downtown Denver. He has a gray water reclamation system, native plant landscaping, uses passive and active solar energy, grows some of his food, installed a composting toilet, geothermal energy, and used recycled tires and straw bales to construct part of the home. His annual energy bill? Practically $0.00. Can you imagine? I think the only thing I would need to pay for that I consider a utility would be for my internet connection! Is there satellite internet technology that’s widely available yet?
Why build an earth shelter? These homes are incredibly sustainable (save for the fact that virgin land might be built upon), and can be owner built off the grid. I have visions of a passive & active solar earth sheltered home with adjoining pottery studio, kiln shed, a posse of small farm animals and veggie garden all fueled by solar panels, wind, geothermal energy and homemade biodiesel. I know – sounds Utopian.
I can just hear the laughter bubbling up now from your side of the computer monitor! But, that’s okay…roll your eyes all you want to. 
The upside is that earth sheltered homes are incredibly weather safe & naturally climate controlled since a portion of the home is sheltered by the earth. Even in the winter, many homes only use supplemental heat such as a pellet or wood stove, and since the earth’s temperature below ground is a relatively stable 50°F or so, summer remains cool with no need for AC and the passive solar design heats in winter. There are natural precautions when building this type of home such as consideration for water drainage & water proofing, air flow ventilation and radon for obvious reasons.
I’ve been so excited about the possibilities that I almost pushed my husband (former real estate appraiser) over the edge a few weeks ago. Suffice it to say, he’s not on board yet – not even luke warm, but I keep trying… I think so many people consider this type of building a foreign concept, despite the fact that people have lived like this since ancient times. I suppose aesthetics and some conflated notion of resale values has something to do with it, but I kind of like the idea of having a sod roof over my head and no utility bill.
I’m not sure if my husband and I will ever get to the point where we move to a more rural area, and when I think about it, this might not be the most environmentally wise choice for us either, especially if he has to commute by car to an urban area to work. Although, if we had our own biodiesel refueling station at home…. I asked my architect friend if there are brownfields in the Denver metro area that would be possibilities for building an alternative structure. His response, “Brownfields? Definitely! Being able to build on one? Maybe, but it will be difficult getting plans approved, let alone getting past the NIMBYs.” Building on a brownfield also depends on the level of pollution, though there are plenty of remediation techniques available including plant life that remove certain chemicals through their root systems.
There are a ton of links out in cyberspace to learn more about alternative home building methods, but one place to get started is architect Malcolm Well’s website – he has links to books, discussions, other websites and more. He even designed and built an earth sheltered art gallery for his artist wife on Cape Cod.
In the meantime, I’ve been wondering if there is such as thing as a green pottery. I don’t think there truly can be one, even if you’re using solar panels or biodiesel or methane gas or farmed wood to fuel your kilns, you’re still mining the earth for the raw materials. With that said, I do think making a ceramic cup is a better choice environmentally than producing disposable cups, even if they are made from recycled materials. Additionally, buying a handmade cup from a potter is much better than buying cheap mass produced work from off shore with questionable environmental production practices.
I was also thinking about carbon offsets this morning too. Can buying carbon offsets assuage a potter’s practices of using fuel and raw materials to produce work? I sort of think buying carbon offsets is like buying indulgences during the 1400-1500’s. I think a better solution is to try to green your life in other ways which goes back to thinking about the home I live in. I may be off the mark here though.
I’ve decided to start small and have been making conscious changes at home – buying organic food, local when possible, switching my cleaning products to environmentally friendly ones, looking at solar panels, selling one car, biking or taking light rail when possible, growing a small vegetable garden. I can do these things easily, though the change over hasn’t come naturally because it takes awhile for old habits to die, and new ones to form. A funny thing happened the other day – I was out an about and ran into a conventional grocery store and after I made dinner, I didn’t think the food tasted as good as the food that I purchase at my local natural grocers where I’ve been shopping since July this year. At first it was the other way around.
In other news, I haven’t tried constructing my test diy solar heaters yet, but have all the materials (all recycled courtesy of the dumpsters in the alley behind my home) ready to go now. Now that the Potters Guild sale is over, I have a lot more time to play. Recently, I have also enjoyed listening to Green Talk Radio podcasts while I work in my studio. The host, Sean Daily, has had some terrific guests on his show and his mantra is start slow – every little change makes a difference.
What do you think in regards to sustainability and the environment – are you doing anything differently? Are you even concerned about it? If you’re a potter, do you think there can be a green pottery? I’m not one of the sky is falling type of people, but by being proactive, I feel a whole lot better.
Just curious,
~Cynthia
17 Responses to “Earth Shelters, the Environment and Green Pottery Practices?”
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This is a big topic for me as well. Like you, we are buying more locally and organically and seasonally, and now that we have a backyard, I’ll be trying my hand at a small vegetable garden as well. We don’t have many choices for energy, especially since we rent, but our electric company does give us the option of getting it from green sources (mostly wind farms in Eastern Washington), and we have opted for that. I would love to be able to get off the grid altogether though. I have long been in love with Earthships – have you ever looked at those? http://www.greenhomebuilding.com/earthship.htm
Angela – I have this site bookmarked! So much good information. It’s tricky when you’re renting, though even here in the city, we would have to apply for permits for many things. There’s an earthship community in the Taos area – makes sense.
hey cynthia, i reckon any small thing you can do helps, growing your own food at least you know what your eating..organic is always good..and the housing plans are great i love the sustainability of them its just all consuming really such big plans,that’s why starting small environmentally is better than nothing..
Great post…as always! This is what I was talking about a few months ago…so I am so on board! My mate man is ready to build, we have plans, we have all the systems designed and ready…we just need some money and land…LOL!
I am growing the garden, reusing everyting, going green for cleaning, and using scraps and recycled or low tech for the art studio. Shipping materials are getting more and more creative, as I recycle and green my way through the season.
I don’t think the earth home is silly. I read up on it a few years back-still would like to do it someday. Just remember to research heat sinks to trap your passive solar heat. I don’t worry too much about recycling anymore. I do it more because I have to in my town. I saw this show on Penn and Teller one day that made me think that it might not accomplish as much as we think it does. They might eventually create a system that makes sense, but right now, some of the stuff to be recycled is shipped so far, that transportation costs almost make it seem silly.
Another great – thoughtful post. I don’t think I could live in an earth dwelling. I’m solar powered & would need windows & more light from outside than living underground would provide.
I am very committed to eating locally – organically. I use my own grocery bags, drive a car with a small carbon foot print (mini cooper). We only have one car. Although my son has a car. I also agree with Deborah on recycling – I always try & remember the slogan – there’s no ‘away’ to throw things to — and try not to make so much trash. We have a trash compactor in our kitchen. The one thing I can’t seem to resolve is water bottles. Any suggestions?
I think it’s hard to be green as a potter. So much that we handle is hazardous besides the energy involved in creating the work. I’m not giving up pottery though. I’m just trying to pay attention to my practices while I’m in the studio.
Hi- this is always a good subject. How best to walk as soft as you can along the path we call earth.
We are old hippies- I can’t think of a better term. We taught our kids and their friends to recycle.
Where does this go they would ask before it was just tossed.
I have to admit we all grew a tad greedy in the past years. Buying more then we needed and not being aware of how we used our resources.
We try here and have for many years to eat locally.
We recycle and yet have found out that after we take the time to sort and clean the glass- they are taking it to the land fill. The country has found it too costly to recycle.
We are part of a food network here and I see it growing everyday.
Back in the day- we grew all our own meats and a large garden. Our neighbors scoffed at our organic garden, but now it is norm.
The meats they understood- it was not unusual to have a pig in the backyard or chickens for the table.
We have set aside some money to buy materials for a chicken shed and fencing for pigs and possibly goats.
It has been a few years since we did this, but we didn’t know what we were doing then and it all worked out.
As far as the pottery- I think the same way- where can you make a change. Is electric better then gas and what about wood?
You just have to pick your battles.
I have picked mine.
Love the idea of better living and I talk about wind power all the time, but Mark does not think we have enough wind to help.
Hell- with 90 potters in the area there is enough hot air to heat the moon!
(Just kidding!)
Nope, I didn’t laugh and I didn’t roll my eyes either! I think it’s a great idea. I’m just always so amazed by your mental energy.
I tried eco friendly cleaning products for a while, but some of them weren’t so good. I will definitely keep buying the good ones though. Apart from that we recycle and re-use where we can. But instead of recycling my plastic bottles to be melted down and polluting the atmosphere, why can’t I just take them somewhere to be refilled?
I just think we live in such a wasteful society. Our toaster stopped working, but I’m loathed to throw it away, even though it will probably cost more to get it repaired than to buy a new one – and that’s what the problem is, things are produced so cheaply these days. Things are not built to last, and when they break down it’s cheaper to replace than to repair. Plus everyone wants the latest and best thing.
Interesting to compare carbon offsets to indulgences. Good analogy I think.
PS, I guess I could also add — WWMLD?
Thanks for all the comments everyone! I’m running behind this morning and will be back later to respond to what you’ve written.
When we lived in Douglas County in a more convention homes, we saw several people who have a house that is at least partially, earth friendly. I know, we say Douglas County and think the opposite, but we had friends who lived in one just south of the city limits of Aurora who had to worry about mowing their roof. Most of the house that you saw was a double wall of windows all the way to the top, and the rest buried into the hill which covered the roof as well. Very quiet mostly and just a wee bit odd. Another couple we knew had a house with just one outside wall, also of windows with a heat sink, and built into a hillside. They also did solar panels for heating and never worried about cooling as the earth did that for them in the summer.
To me, these houses resembled the “eye” house off I-70, near Genesse, except built into the earth with southern or western exposure. I loved the idea and the only thing I didn’t like was the idea of all the earth overhead and only having extreme light on one side of the house. We seriously considered such a house before we bought one dirt cheap at the time, in Perry Park. Building it would be tough nowadays I think. We also had friends who lived with a lot of their house built into a hillside and a greenhouse heat sink. They also used solar a lot, but I think wind has a lot of potential for many places in Colorado. I thought this was interesting, but there are also places close to Colorado Springs and or Monument with lots of ‘different’ houses.
What a great post (though I have not yet read the whole thing, too much going on at once), but the “is there such a thing as a green pottery” caught me eye. You MUST check out this link:
http://www.hotnsticky.com.au/
Click on the sustainability tab. They might be as green as you can get. Very impressive efforts on their part.
My husband would like an underground house; I would like a straw bale one. Not sure we’ll ever have one of them though. I’ve been in several caves in summer and they stay very cool which is quite nice in the summer heat. I grow my own vegetables and fruits. I sited my studio between trees on the east and west to cut down on AC use and a sliding door faces south with concrete porch and floor so heat radiates inside in the winter – it really is amazing – it stays very warm in there. I planted tall trees and shrubs in front of my house which faces west to shade the windows from the hot summer sun which helped to decrease my air costs. I have read about potter’s using cooking oil to fire their pots.
undaunted – you are so right about it costing more to repair things than the cost of a new item. Things have been made to be disposable – probably as an incentive for folks to purchase the same item over and over again. My mom bought each of us siblings (4) one of those old stainless steel Sunbeam toasters from the thrift stores as she found them. My brother replaced the frayed cords. I’ve had that toaster for 23 years and it’s still working fine. It’s the one where you drop the toast on the elements and the bread goes down automatically. They are the best toasters.
thanks for another great post.
Ang – That’s exactly what my husband told me! He’s not quite as crunchy and after a bit of a heated discussion (of course I wanted to do it NOW), he said, let’s build the DIY solar heaters, shop at the natural grocers and slowly think about the other. Of course, he comes from a financial and an insurance services background which is so conservative to begin with. That’s probably why we make a great team – impulsive vs. rational – and we meet in the middle.
Heather – You have to check this site http://www.cordwoodmasonry.com/. They do workshops and have a couple of books that you can get from the library. While this type of home sort of looks fairy story book hobbit like, it really appeals to me. Best of all, they have homes that were recently built (last 10 years) by owners with maybe a little subcontracting for grading and engineering for less than $45,000! Can you imagine? You would just need the land – and they also talk about how to get financing if it’s something you have to do. Here’s the book http://www.motherearthnews.com/shopping/detail.aspx?ItemNumber=2787
Deborah – So many of my neighbors don’t recycle and it used to really get my goat. Now – I am famously a dumpster diver, and their cardboard, bubble wrap and peanuts are my treasure. It’s a very symbiotic relationship! Denver has recycling and the city provides bins that we set out every other week. I think the only thing we really put out is aluminum, cans, glass and a few stray odds and ends. I am trying to buy stuff that’s not over packaged now. We used to live in an area of Denver and had a homeless guy who showed up like clockwork on recycle day (he must have had all the neighborhood schedules down pat) who would collect the aluminum to turn in for cash.
When we lived in Maine, I liked our system a lot – it was a pay as you go trash collection. We had to buy special bags which cost somewhere between $1-2 apiece. Believe you me, it’s like paying cash for something and really makes you think about what you throw away. Colorado is talking about doing something like that and I’d be all for it – as long as our water/sewer/trash fee was adjusted.
Judy – re: water bottles, I don’t buy bottled water, but our municipal city water is good and we have a purifier. I do have one of the Nalgene bottles that I fill, but need to replace it. I was just listening to a podcast on the type of plastic #7 that is used to make these which is carcinogenic and an endocrine disruptor. The alt suggestion was aluminum bottles – I’m going to get one of these bottles for each of us. They’re incredibly stylish too! There are other choices – Klean Canteen and Guyot, both made from stainless steel. You can read a bit about lexan the material that is used in Nalgene & similar bottles. (Although according to the Nalgene website, they are phasing out the use of BPA (bisphenol A) in their water bottles because of health concerns.
Earthshelters are not necessarily dark – many homes have skylights built in, and the true underground homes often have courtyards – so all rooms open up to a central open area. I would like a partially sheltered home – 2 sides only with Southern exposure.
I like Terra Dome’s designs – and then Malcolm Well’s site has some great links to different companies who design earth sheltered homes. But, I agree, they’re not for everybody. I think my husband was more attracted to the straw bale building since it looks more like conventional architecture.
“I’m not giving up pottery.” – me either! I’m just trying to figure out a way to green it up a bit.
Meredith – “We’re old hippies.”
I must be in spirit, though that’s not how I was raised with a career military father.
My grandmother always had a huge organic vegetable garden (it almost always took up her whole back yard) – and was organic out of financial necessity in a time when chemical pesticides, fertilizers and the like were widely in use. She gardened to feed her family, the manure was free courtesy of my uncle (who was at the time a farmer with a dairy emphasis) and she stretched her garden – canning produce for winter use. I used to think it was quaint – but realize now how brilliant it was. I can still taste fresh produce warmed from the sun and picked right from the garden. Since many people no longer maintain a veggie garden now a days, it’s so important to know where the food comes from.
I searched and searched for a link to a podcast that I recently listened to about a sustainable organic farm operation in the Mid Atlantic states, that I thought was just brilliant. It is a small farm that uses their animals and land in a very symbiotic way that fascinated me.
I think for pottery – Gas, electric and wood aren’t better choices environmentally (take away the aesthetic value of each). Electric maybe if fired with solar – gas probably only if it’s biodiesel or methane powered – and wood if it’s farmed wood, scrap, beetle killed or other pest (here in CO – our evergreens are all dying due to beetle kill and many enterprising people are using the wood in creative ways.) On a side note, it’s changing the face of the landscape in the mountains. It’s incredible to drive on I-70 and see formerly green mountain sides, now covered with brown/rust colored dead evergreen trees. Check out these images.
Hell- with 90 potters in the area there is enough hot air to heat the moon! – teehee
Linda U. – you have to watch The Story of Stuff regarding your toaster breaking and being more expensive to repair than buying new. The cleaning products are tough to find ones that do the same job as conventional ones. I have found a couple and I’ve switched to earth friendly dish soap and laundry detergent. Here’s a site that has recipes for homemade cleaning solutions. As for plastic, see my response to Judy above. I’m trying to cut back myself.
Janet – It took me a minute to figure out the WWMLD – lapsed Lutheran that I am
Yeah, not a fan of buying carbon offsets. Weird concept – and does it have any tangible bennies? I guess that’s research that I should do before passing judgment.
Mary – I guess I never considered Douglas county given that I associate it with Highlands Ranch. But, I forget that it’s a large county!
“To me, these houses resembled the “eye” house off I-70, near Genesse.” – I would love to live in The Sleeper house! I look for it every time I find myself on I-70. I love the landscape in unincorporated Boulder – with the views of the Flatirons.
The one thing that I like about having passive solar is being able to have a green house planting beds built inside the house to grow plants, herbs and veggies year round. I do think there are lighting conditions to consider for both shade and brightness considerations – not even close to planning right now.
Jerry – In my search for solar powered kilns, came across this exact same pottery. In fact I have the site bookmarked and had planned to include it in a future post. Yeah, I know – it’s a lot of info.
I considered breaking it up into smaller parts…
Linda S. – You have an ideal set up! I think when my husband and I built our first home, we didn’t even consider stuff like this. Granted, that home was in a covenant controlled subdivision – and we would have had limited choices. If we were to build a home from scratch – we would be so much more aware of site location and building.
If we ever get around to building an self sufficient energy wise home, we could do part earthship/part straw bale to appease both my hubby and me. I think it’s going to take some research for sure.
Thrifting is very eco-friendly!
That’s a great link Cynthia! Thank you!
We are living the green dream, building an earth sheltered home in Oregon. It took over three months to get approval from the building department so we are starting later than planned. Check out our progress at http://www.dragonflyhill.org
Steve