Unfortunately, zoning laws make these impossible in most places. The side of me that believes in individual liberty thinks that if you own the property, it should be your damn business what you build there. The part of me that believes in having a functional society sees all the ways that kind of lack of regulation could be abused.

I considered trying to incorporate a lot of ideas from this and build a place here in Japan, but the insurance side of it made things basically impossible, especially given how prevalent large earthquakes are here. That’s not to say there’s nothing to take away from it here, it’s just that certain materials and design choices shouldn’t be done here. There are a couple of earthships in Japan, but IIRC they’re not insured at all and every single one has to be approved by an independent architect and engineer or be in questionable legal status.

Made sure to visit earthship central outside of Taos, NM and my favorite part of the architecture is the permanent garden in the front. One definitely needs to make peace with the odor, but I love the smell of a greenhouse anyway.

I want one of these so bad