Mass Appeal

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Mass is subtle, in Reynolds's estimation. "Sun comes and goes, like right now we have no sun," he points out as we drive across the rainswept mesa. "At night we ve got no sun. But mass never leaves. Mass is always there. If you can have a blast of water for five minutes, that's great, but if you can have a drip for five years, that's better. Mass is that way. I'm more impressed with mass than I am with the sun. Once you achieve mass, it never goes away.

Reynolds explains that if the base of the Earthship is below the frost line, the depth to which the ground freezes, the temperature of the mass walls will stay at 59 or 60 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the ambient temperature of the earth below that point. "Just as in a cave, the temperature will never go lower or higher unless you make it lower or higher. So without any input whatsoever, you're going to be able to remain at 59 or 60 degrees Fahrenheit. And that's livable," he adds with a smile, "no matter what happens."

Earthship houses are oriented toward the south and in some cases slightly to the east where maximum exposure to the sun is important. The southern wall is slanted and constructed entirely of framed glass. Ideally, the southern wall should contain the only glass in the structure as well as the only entrance, to maximize the mass of the three other sides. In Taos, at an elevation of 7,000 feet, winter temperatures reach minus 30 degrees, and summer temperatures can top out in the 100s; the walls of these houses maintain a mean temperature of 65 to 75 degrees without additional cooling or heating sources.

Achieving Mass

In developing the Earthship design, Reynolds kept his eye on two key factors: cost and sustainability. To be truly sustainable for the long term, he felt that structures must "join with the earth, not resist it." Thus, in addition to the mass of the structure's walls, the natural elements of the earth itself are included. Earthships are partially submerged in the ground, with the excavated soil piled nearly to the roof on the northern face.

All of the exterior walls, except for the glass one, have as their main component steel-belted radial tires filled with dirt: extremely economical and extremely dense. In addition to being ideal for achieving mass, tires are tremendously abundant—to the point that their disposal has become a major environmental problem. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, approximately 240 million tires are discarded in the United States every year. Finding a place to put them is a difficult task. Most landfill operators will not take them because they have a macabre tendency to rise to the surface once the dump is covered over, similar to the protagonists of the classic film Night of the LivingDead. An environmental version could be The Tires That Wouldn't Die.

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