A Brief History of New Mexico “Earthships,” the Unconventional Homes with No Utility Bills (Really!)

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Heading northwest from Taos, New Mexico, the sparse, sage-filled desert soon begins to sparkle as looming, Seussian structures appear in the distance. Earthships, as these buildings are called, may look like giant earthen pottery, but they’re actually thoughtfully designed passive solar homes. 

New Mexico’s futuristic Greater World Earthship Community is home to 113 Earthships. Dazzling from afar, their architecture is even more intriguing up close. Decorated with colored bottles that reflect the sun’s light, these structures jut out from the desert floor like mystical relics floating on barren hills.

In fact, the aesthetic of these homes is shaped by practicality. Earthships are built to be sturdy and self-sufficient, even in harsh environments like the high desert of northern New Mexico. Their plant-lined windows hint at the jungles inside — each home is lined with an indoor greenhouse for food growing and gardening. Earthship interiors stay surprisingly cool; with temperatures holding at a pleasant 68 to 70 degrees Fahrenheit, they provide a sweet escape from sweltering heat outside. And here’s the best part: There’s no utility bill.

Some 3,000 of these passive solar homes exist worldwide, with a large chunk of them situated in and around Taos, New Mexico. Is this all sounding straight out of Star Wars? Keep reading to dig into what exactly an Earthship is.

Earthships are passive solar homes that adhere to a specific set of design principles. They are south-facing with an open east-to-west layout, allowing ample ventilation within the home. And at least 40% of the structure is made from recycled materials, giving conventional garbage a new life outside the landfill. 

“People are excited about a lot of things. First and foremost is the lack of a utility bill,” explains architect and Earthship inventor Mike Reynolds. “They say they’re very quiet, and they are. You’re in a solid, earthen building, and people comment about the quiet in an Earthship, then the beauty and the shapes and the living with plants.”

They’re also incredibly dreamy. Designed to grow food, collect rainwater, capture and store wind and solar energy, and dispose of waste in a sustained way, Earthships behave less as independent structures and more as cohabitants to the land they’re built on.

“An Earthship is a living vessel that encounters the phenomena of the Earth to provide the six points of sustenance to humanity: comfortable shelter, water, electricity, food, sewage treatment on site, and use of garbage discarded by the community,” Reynolds says.

As futuristic as they appear, these off-grid homes are surprisingly modern. Reynolds designed and built the first Earthship structure in New Mexico in the 1970s, in response to the pressing need he saw for environmentally conscious affordable housing.

“The Earthship provides a very practical way of reducing the garbage filling up our landfills and our oceans, while at the same time creating a comfortable shelter. We have architects and engineers, city planners and politicians visiting us, being inspired by the work we are doing, and that feels really good,” says Will Orr, manager of the Earthship Biotecture visitor center. “We provide a look at what is possible when you redefine something from ‘garbage’ to ‘building materials.’”

At heart, the Earthship is made of old tires. No, really. The foundation of each Earthship comes primarily from old tires, packed tight with dirt and gravel, which form the perimeter and insulation of the home.

The walls are coated with cement or adobe and decorated with recycled aluminum cans and glass bottles of all colors and sizes, fitted in a variety of designs to channel light from the outside. Their formations are a defining part of the classic Earthship’s design and style. Compact trash makes up a final layer of insulation, while floors are laid with adobe, reclaimed wood, or metal. 

“These things, when put together to service the human vessel, define what it looks like. It’s like a wind tunnel defines what an automobile or jet looks like,” says Reynolds. “The Earthship look comes from absolute and total function; it’s a counter to the phenomena of the planet.”

The shelters are earthquake- and fire-resistant, with heating and cooling conducted through solar energy and thermal mass. A combination of solar and wind energy technology allows the homes to function completely off the grid. Rainwater is filtered for human consumption, while wastewater and greywater are treated on site and used for sewage and irrigation.

Earthships are not exclusive to New Mexico; there are Earthship homes all across the world in countries like India, the Netherlands, Canada, and Australia. Even so, there are few that compare to this special New Mexican community. Open since 1992, the Greater World Community was founded by Reynolds himself and is now a 640-acre subdivision with 113 homes. Outside the Greater World Community, there are about 200 independent Earthships located in and around Taos. (The first Earthship Reynolds ever built is located in Taos about 30 minutes from the community and currently used as an Airbnb.) 

The Earthship aesthetic can vary from location to location; Taos is where you should head for a true Southwestern vibe. “The design of Earthships is somewhat customized to the local availability of materials and design elements,” says Deborah Binder, construction manager for Earthship Biotecture. “The Taos Earthships community definitely features more Southwestern-style design elements like traditional vigas.”

Daily on-site tours — and even overnight rentals — are offered through Earthship Biotecture, showcasing multiple styles of Earthship homes. If you want to get your hands dirty, Reynolds’ Earthship Academy offers on-site courses where students get first-hand experience working on an actual Earthship. As the Earthship Biotecture website says, “Being self-sufficient does not mean reducing one’s quality of life.”