Crew Spotlight: Seth Larsen - January, 2010

This is our fifth feature on our Earthship builders, and at the risk of sounding like a broken record, our featured crew member this month arrived in Taos in 1992, intending to intern for a month, and he never left.

Seth Larsen was born and raised in California, where he attended school with Michael Reynold’s son, Jonah. At the urging of Jonah, Seth and his twin brother, Demian, came to Taos in early 1992. They figured they would check out this “Earthship” business before they got on with their lives.

Eighteen years later, Seth is still at it. I asked him if he ever had second thoughts, especially during the years Michael Reynolds and Earthship Biotecture were shut down.

“No way. I found other jobs to keep me going until we were up and running again. I bartended and did landscaping, also a bit of general construction. But as soon as Mike got the green light, I was back. Over the years, Mike has become like a father to me and my brother, there was never a question of leaving the company for any reason."

“In the early days, I stayed because I thought Earthships made sense. Plus, I was a young punk who liked to party and this was an adventure. Now, I still see it as an adventure, but it’s also my career. The other crew members are like my family. We care about each other, we have fun, and we love what we do.”

Over the years, Seth has built Earthships in many states and countries. I knew that he and the rest of the crew were arrested and detained during the France Earthship build a few years ago, so I asked him if anything like that had ever happened before or since.

“Phil and I were part of an advance team that went to Holland a few years after the France job. We encountered some of the same resistance, even though we kept assuring the Dutch officials that we were just there to teach. But we showed up at the job site one morning, and just like in France, we saw a lot of police cars. We just got on our bikes and pedaled back to our place-no way were we going to get ourselves arrested again! We weren’t at our cottage long when our European partner pedaled up and told us we had to go back--the cops saw us at the job site and they knew where we lived--so we reluctantly biked it back to the site. In the end, it turned out okay, we and the rest of the crew that followed were eventually allowed to complete the building.

“But it’s frustrating to keep encountering this type of resistance after so many years. We have a 30-year track record, anyone can research us and know that what we do works, so it’s disconcerting to see police pull up to any job site.”

I asked Seth what he thought the hardest part of building an Earthship was.

“I think the hardest thing for most people is just following through. It helps if they get all the proper permits and do their homework before they begin. Except for the pockets of freedom we have found in the states (counties that allow a lot of flexibility in their building codes), many areas are a nightmare tangle of red tape and bureaucracy, which means the typical Earthship builder has to persevere.”

Finally, I asked Seth what question he encounters the most wherever he is building.

“That’s easy. They look at the cans and bottles we use in the construction of the building and immediately ask, ‘Do Ya’ll drink all this beer?’ The answer, of course, is yes,” Seth said with a smile.

“I bar tended, did general construction, and landscaping

“In the early years, I thought of it as an adventure, I was just a young punk and I loved to party. Now it’s still an adventure, but it’s also my career--and I can still party.”

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