Primary Building Block

We recently went to a State of Design talk by Michael Reynolds, principal Earthship Biotecture who has 35 years of research and development of self-sufficient housing made from recycled materials. His work is fascinating and a deep explore of the site will reveal more than can be captured here in a few words.

To Michael, garbage is gold. He laments the lack of appreciation for the things we throw away and has found wonderfully low-tech means of evolving new uses for ubiquitous materials - the archetypal example being the rubber tyre which serves as the primary building block for the Earthships. This essentially free resource, indigenous planet-wide, provides the major structural and performance of the dwellings. Michael suggested that were he given a design brief to create the ideal building block for his Earthships he would be hard pressed to better the rubber tyre.

At makedo, the cardboard box is our primary building block - for exactly the same reasons! One day soon we’d love to see an Earthship with an interior fit-out created using makedo.