A Bicentennial Town Square Event featuring Jonah Reynolds and Bridgette Meinhold
Beyond Conventional Dwellings: What Sustainable Options Exist for Challenged Communities?

May 23, 2013
5:30 Reception
6:30-8:00 Program
Event Price: Free
Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (Formally: Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia)
1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway
215 299.1000

Topic: How are Earthships Relevant to Philadelphia?

Saturday was expected to be snowy and bitter cold, the goal was to start on the tires for the Greenhouse and if we got enough people...start to plaster the wall built the weekend prior.

I was the first to show up around 8:15am, I laid the cornerstone and took my measurements off it, it was my goal to have the ground leveled on the South face row so that tires could be laid and ready to be pounded when folks arrived.

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Earthship Philadelphia has been working to secure a lot in the city to build an education center that is off the grid. It provides its own solar heat, electricity and water. The project has been underway since last summer and is building some traction.

Earthship Philly is spearheaded by Rashida Ali-Campbell. She says while a search is still underway for property to build the school, one earthship greenhouse has been completed at the Emerald Street Urban Farm in Kensington and another is under construction at the Village of the Arts in North Philadelphia.

Garbage Warrior Screening in Philadelphia followed by discussion with Jonah Reynolds.

May 24, 7pm-10pm [$10]
Discounted and side street parking available.

Ethical Humanist Society of Philadelphia - http://www.phillyethics.org/
1906 Rittenhouse Square
Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 735-3456
email: office@phillyethics.org

Renegade architect Michael Reynolds and his green disciples have devoted their time to advancing the art of “Earthship Biotecture” – passive, solar, off-the-grid, sustainable housing. Earthship n. 1. passive solar home made of natural and recycled materials 2. thermal mass construction for temperature stabilization. 3. renewable energy & integrated water systems make the Earthship an off-grid home with little to no utility bills. Biotecture n. 1. the profession of designing buildings and environments with consideration for their sustainability. 2. A combination of biology and architecture.

Jonah Reynolds
Mike’s son and pioneering member of the Taos Earthship Community – has been building earthships since the age of twelve – started the production of bio diesel within the community from waste cooking oil. Many local companies now run their vehicles on the fuel. Jonah has worked on many global projects including the tsunami project.

see also: How are Earthship Relevant to Philadelphia? by Jonah Reynolds

What better way to tear the walls down then to build new ones out of.... tires!?

The walls I speak of tearing down are the metaphorical ones we put up ourselves as people. These "barriers" that safe guard our security. What security? Perhaps..... our comfort zones? Our Houses? Our Food? Our Entertainment?

On February 9th,
Originally over 100 RSVP's were made on a day to be rather cold and icy. A "Prelude to an Earthship" for the community to come together and work together towards a Greater Life for ourselves and the Drive to do so.

http://earthship.com/pennsylvania

Earthships are one of the key factors to help Philadelphia become the leading city in the world for sustainable living. An example for the world to follow.

Earthships represent total independence from anything. From electrical grids going down, from water not working, from giant storms, from freezing weather. Earthships will withstand any natural disaster when conventional architecture and infrastructure is destroyed. The people will still have power, water, sewage and warmth when giant storms hit.

How would you like to live in a house with no electric bills, no air conditioning, no heating units and still be perfectly comfortable in the coldest winter or the hottest summer? If you answered yes then the house you want to live in is an Earthship (http://www.earthship.com/). Earthships are radically sustainable buildings made with recycled materials.

On February 9, 2013, Bonzai Homesteads in collaboration with Village of Arts & Humanities (http://www.villagearts.org/) and PhillyEarth (http://phillyearth.org) will be presenting a workshop to teach you the very basics of building your own. What we're going to show you is innovative, and certainly is different… It takes a problem and makes it an asset.

All details and sign up info at the Facebook event:
facebook.com/event/130013250498672

A dozen or so volunteers gathered Monday morning on a small muddy plot at the Silver Lake Nature Center in Bristol Township, pounding sledgehammers into old tires.

The tires were laid on their sides in a rough U-shape. The pounding officially began Saturday; by Monday afternoon, the volunteers were well into the second of what will be nine layers of tires.

Volunteers dropped heaping shovelfuls of dirt into each tire. The sledgehammers followed, packing the soil deep into the tires, effectively turning each one into a 300-pound building block.

from phillyblurbs.com
By DANNY ADLER Staff writer

A new structure at Silver Lake Nature Center in Bristol Township will be built with recycled products. It will heat and cool itself. It will gather its own water.

And nature center officials are stoked.

Not only will the new Watershed Education Building, or WEB, teach visitors about the local watershed, it will serve as a tool to educate people about sustainable living, said Lorraine Skala, the nature center’s education director and assistant naturalist.

Its walls will be made of used tires filled with soil, and then surrounded by a grass berm. The water in the building will come from rain water that is filtered and reused, Skala said. Also, the building will feature solar panels, which are being donated.

from the Sierra Club

More than 40,000 vacant lots, many piled high with illegally dumped tires, blight the city of Philadelphia. High unemployment and crime rates discourage many residents, but not Rashida Ali-Campbell, director of the non-profit, LoveLovingLove, Inc.

In Philadelphia's empty lots and abandoned, decaying buildings (approximately 75,000), Ali-
Campbell sees hope and unlimited possibilities. Her mission is to open a school for low-income residents to learn sustainable building techniques. She plans to bring the first urban Earthship to Philadelphia.