Earthships

An Earthship is a house made from recycled

material, rubbish and the earth under your
feet. An Earthship is good for the environment.
It collects water, makes electricity and grows
food. You can build it cheaply with eco-friendly
materials.
You build an Earthship in front of a hill, so it has a natural
back wall behind the house. You put earth in old car
tyres and use these for the other outside walls. Inside the
house, in the walls between the different rooms, there are
old bottles and drinks cans. There aren’t any windows in
the back wall, but the Earthship isn’t dark because of the
big windows in the front wall. These windows warm the
Earthship in the day. The walls then keep it warm at night.
There are plants in the garden next to the house and in the
hall and kitchen. These can give you fruit and vegetables
all year. On the roof, there are solar panels and a wind
turbine to produce electricity from the sun and the wind. The
house also collects rain water on the roof and filters it, so
you can drink it and use it in the kitchen and showers in the
bathroom. You can then use the water again on the plants
and in the toilet.

insight Elementary Student’s Book Unit 3 pp.36–37   © Oxford University Press 2014 1
 An Earthship is very green, but does it make a comfortable
home? Jane Ronson lives in an Earthship near the city of
Phoenix, USA, and she says, ‘It’s fantastic. It’s got all the
same things as ordinary homes. There’s a modern cooker,
a fridge and a dishwasher in the kitchen, and a big TV
opposite the sofa in the living room. It’s got the internet,
too, and with the electricity from the solar panels and wind
turbines we can watch TV and use the computer for hours.’
There are now a thousand Earthships around the world. Are
they the houses of the future?

1 2 D
F G

C
E
B
H
3 4

K L

5 6 P
O

N
M
A001998

insight Elementary Student’s Book Unit 3 pp.36–37   © Oxford University Press 2014 2