Tire Houses in Haiti
Guess what! The world is getting some more earthships!
Mike Reynolds, the man who designed tire house living (like our own tire house) is helping Haiti rebuild their country. He’s the gray-haired man in the center of the photo above.
The earthships in Haiti are made from old tires, cardboard, bottles, Styrofoam, and all sorts of other “junk”. Isn’t that just perfect? In a land so badly destroyed, they’re salvaging the scraps. Reynolds and his crew aren’t just surveying the area and drawing up plans. They’re rolling up their sleeves and HELPING.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal that my dad discovered, Reynolds said that before he went to Haiti earlier this month, “There was nothing but tents, nothing but cleanup.”
Local people are teaming up to construct these crazy, awesome homes. Following the earthship mission, the houses will be self-sustaining, generating their own energy and collecting rainwater. The one above is made from 120 tires – and get this: it’s just 120 square feet big. I know how small that is by our standards. But imagine how beautiful it must be to have a home when yours was lost.
The plan is to build a small village of earthships.
How do you give your talents to the world? Do you volunteer locally or try to send relief to places like Haiti? Every little bit helps, because after all if you help a man build good things, he can turn around and build more goodness.
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:28 am
Really refreshing to see somebody helping out in one the poorest countries in the world in a practical, realistic, and ecological way! This just made my day really! Sometimes I get so angry about all the superficial good will gestures that occur when a tragedy of the magnitude of what happened this year in Haiti occurs. It is nice to see somebody really truly help!
I have volunteered in various ambients for years, my most hand on experience being a year in Guatemala as a teacher/care giver at an orphanage, and once in Hundouras I was a volunteer translator for an american doctor during his medical brigades through the Mosquitia.
Today I volunteer,however in a less direct, hands on manner, sadly. However at the moment it is all I can do, I volunteer at a fair-trade shop……wish I could something more direct but not easy being a student!
March 22nd, 2011 at 3:30 pm
Beautifull. I knew about this idea. It is fantastic.
I have the same idea of using old tires for the protection of ” berges ” banks of rivers
to avoid flooding of cities like : Leogane, Petit Goave, les Cayes, Gonaives
and other cities.
Good work, THANK YOU
Philippe Mangones