Arrived in Taos about a week ago after leaving Chaco Canyon. Liz drove down to meet me from Colorado and we spent some time hanging out and getting to know the town. Taos is a pretty cool little place filled to the brim with art galleries and groovy peeps, some too groovy for their own good, and others just nice folks that you want to hang with.

I had an interview set up for the 25th with Michael Reynolds the founder of Earthship Biotecture and also set up a night in the newest earthship to date known as the Phoenix. The interview with Michael was a blast as he bowled me over with charisma, knowledge and stories of his lifelong process of building earthships. Michael is pretty well known around the world for his designs but there is not a touch of pretentiousness about him. Although he is a lightning bolt of a man, he also appears to have remained in touch with his humility and grace.

Earthships are structures that are built into and of the earth itself. They feature water catchment systems that collect rain water, solar panels and wind turbines that generate electricity, solar water heaters, indoor greenhouses that grow everything from bananas to grapes. These places are complete marvels of biotecture.

Michael, after some intense battles with the architectural establishment had his architecture license taken away. This after the judge that had been hired to hang him actually later testified in his defense. He shifted gears and became a Biotect creating the term Biotecture. And that's exactly what these buildings are.. it's almost unfair to call them buildings since they look and feel and I guess actually are living things. They feed off water and sunshine which allows them and everything within them to flourish.

I LOVE these buildings, but what I love most of all is not that they are sustainable and only cost about $100/year to run, I love the fact that they are extraordinary pieces of art. Every element seems to have been infused with creativity and love. Every line demonstrates a uniqueness only matched by nature itself. Every light fixture or doorknob is built of recycled objects that have been cut, bent and shaped into pure beauty.

I've been collecting interviews that relate to different ways of seeing and being in this world and how we build is central to it all. Currently we are still stuck in dated models of cookie cutter houses that are built despite the environment, actually in resistance to the natural world. Square buildings with few south facing windows and tied to a grid that depends upon them being energy hungry monsters. Insulation is good but nothing compared to what's possible, and environmental design these days means slapping on a few water saving measures and some solar panels for decoration. None of it is even close to enough.

There has to be an economic boom in the next little while and it has to be green. not lip service green but true green, the green of earthships. All the houses we have built in the last few decades need to be retrofitted for a low cost low energy future. We need to transform our office buildings into ecosystems utilizing south facing windows, interior and rooftop gardens, grey water filtration and natural heating and cooling systems. It's actually all quite simple. All we need is to see things for what they are instead of being stuck in a rigid and wasteful paradigm. I know it will happen and in some places it already is. I find this very exciting!

Staying in an earthship was something really special. Michael had told me in our earlier interview that everything grows thrives and heals inside an earthship and I have to agree. The peace and tranquility of the space left us feeling rejuvenated and calm. There is something about them that pulls you out of the urban disaster model and back into the earth, literally.

peace,d

Here's a video from the weather channel.. featuring the structures and Michael.