Earthship Village Colorado

Just saw this while websurfing, anybody involved in this yet.

http://earthshipvillagecolorado.com/

Sounds like they are trying to emulate the Taos community. I might have to volunteer to learn about building earthships.

Woah!! This is so awesome! I'm really looking forward to connecting with these guys...their website looks pretty new. I'm transitioning onto a family property that used to be my father's native plant nursery in Rifle, CO....a solid few hours drive away but will eventually sell the 3 bedroom modular home and build an earthship....

Finding a way to take some time off of my project and help them could be great experience and maybe they'd help consult when I want to build mine.

Thanks for the post!

Chris

yep, pretty cool project.

they are out east of CO Springs a bit (30 mins?) a bit south of hwy 94.
there are a few "earthship" type homes a bit north of that location as well as a few into black forest area. so the concept is proven locally.

i would be interested in touring the area and seeing some of the homes that are going in.
if we did a home like that, we would do rammed earth walls instead of pounding tires. - - if we could only find land with irrigation rights and no building codes...

Kelly Smith wrote:yep, pretty cool project.

they are out east of CO Springs a bit (30 mins?) a bit south of hwy 94.
there are a few "earthship" type homes a bit north of that location as well as a few into black forest area. so the concept is proven locally.

i would be interested in touring the area and seeing some of the homes that are going in.
if we did a home like that, we would do rammed earth walls instead of pounding tires. - - if we could only find land with irrigation rights and no building codes...

Yeah it look like that's where they're at...

I'm fortunate to be taking over a family property with pretty significant water rights and irrigation infrastructure....we're not in municipality so unincorporated designated agricultural rangeland so I think any building codes I'll be dealing with are at the county and state level so hopefully I'll be able to work around the bureaucratic obstacles

Chris DeBoer wrote:

Kelly Smith wrote:yep, pretty cool project.

they are out east of CO Springs a bit (30 mins?) a bit south of hwy 94.
there are a few "earthship" type homes a bit north of that location as well as a few into black forest area. so the concept is proven locally.

i would be interested in touring the area and seeing some of the homes that are going in.
if we did a home like that, we would do rammed earth walls instead of pounding tires. - - if we could only find land with irrigation rights and no building codes...

Yeah it look like that's where they're at...

I'm fortunate to be taking over a family property with pretty significant water rights and irrigation infrastructure....we're not in municipality so unincorporated designated agricultural rangeland so I think any building codes I'll be dealing with are at the county and state level so hopefully I'll be able to work around the bureaucratic obstacles

there are plenty of permitted earthship style houses in CO. I dont know that all are 100% off grid, but most of the ones ive seen (7) employ 75%+ of the ideas used in earthships. most have septic systems though.
There is a guy in black forest (NE of COS) that can design these types of houses. he has had several that carry "PE" stamps, approved by the county etc etc.
tire bales are building medium that i have seen used: http://www.touchtheearthranch.com/tirebales.htm

good luck, and please post pics of any progress.

Kelly Smith wrote:yep, pretty cool project.

they are out east of CO Springs a bit (30 mins?) a bit south of hwy 94.
there are a few "earthship" type homes a bit north of that location as well as a few into black forest area. so the concept is proven locally.

i would be interested in touring the area and seeing some of the homes that are going in.
if we did a home like that, we would do rammed earth walls instead of pounding tires. - - if we could only find land with irrigation rights and no building codes...

We actually built our Earthship (see recent post with pics) very, very close to this proposed community. prior to all of this. I went to a local meeting about this building endeavor. Michael Reynolds spoke, and it was a very inspiring speech. I've emailed the builder a time or two, and invited him over to see ours, which is about 5 miles away. I believe they have now opened this up to other "green-building" techniques, probably due to the financing, insurability, building permitting, etc of earthships. This said, the county building department PPRBD is very good at trying to accomodate alternative building. But you do have to do all your homework, submittals, and due diligence.

I hope this community happens, but I'm not holding my breath. If you tour this area, let me know, and definitely add my home to your tour. I also have 3 other very close friends who live in Earthships - Manitou Springs, Canyon City area, and Black Forest. Their homes are always open to interested parties.

I may have to take you up on that tour one of these days Jim !

Miles Flansburg wrote:I may have to take you up on that tour one of these days Jim !

We just gave a tour to a couple from Masonville, who have just amassed the tire-bales for their build there. I hired semi-trucks, but he picked his up in South Denver, and lugged them all there, using a trailer. On their trip to the Springs, they also visited my friend's tire-bale earthship near Canyon City.

Masonville is a great area, with organic farms and ranches, and I think it really needs an Earthship I'm hoping to help them out a little.

Does anyone know what happened with the earthship village concept? It appears that their website is offline. earthshipvillagecolorado.com

Thanks!

Last year my husband and I took a drive to the location east of Colorado Springs and there was nothing there.  Someone driving by stopped and told us they never really got off the ground.