APRIL 2007 NEWS
- Earthship Homes Development Decision - permission granted April 2007
Earthship Homes Development Decision - permission granted April 2007
On Wednesday 25th April, city councillors granted planning permission for a groundbreaking 16 unit Earthship development on a prime site overlooking Brighton’s marina. This ultra-green development could provide one of the most radical solutions to sustainable housing proposed to date and according to the people behind the scheme has the potential to revolutionise the way we live our lives.
It will be the first such development in the UK to be used for residential homes and the community of one, two and three bedroom homes is poised to become the world’s highest density of innovative, autonomous Earthships. At a time when the environmental impact of our everyday lives has taken centre stage, Earthships offer an exciting and innovative alternative to modern housing. Earthships are buildings that heat and cool themselves naturally via thermal dynamics, harvest all of their own water, dispose of their own waste and generate all of their power from sustainable resources.
The Earthships also utilize materials that are byproducts of modern society like cans, bottles and tires in their construction and the proposed development at the marina will recycle more than 15,000 tyres. Even though it is still in its early stages, the Earthship development is attracting a lot of interest as Daren Howarth, co-director of Biotecture, the social enterprise that submitted the application explains:
‘Projects like this can be extremely powerful and they are vital as they point to a feasible alternative to current building methods. There are Earthship projects taking place across the world from Taos in New Mexico to Southern Spain and there are individual developments happening in France. The Brighton project will be iconic. It is a prime site and the development has the potential to capture the imagination and make a global impact.
‘The Lizard’ has already attracted a lot of interest. We have generated hundreds of enquiries from a very wide range of potential buyers, including people who are keen to secure one of the six units allocated as ‘affordable’ housing through the Housing Association. The council’s decision is timely and may set a precedent that challenges both ecological entrepreneurs and main-stream developers alike.’
The Earthship planning application follows a six-month feasibility study funded by the Environment Agency and the Energy Saving Trust. Biotecture carried out the study in partnership with Brighton and Hove City Council and the Chichester Diocese Housing Association and alongside other architects and surveyors. This feasibility study supported the move to develop small scale residential Earthship developments and earmarked the marina site as a potentially suitable location for the pilot development. Biotecture has spent a year working on the planning application with council officers and have already secured an agreement with the Cooperative Bank and Ecology Building Society to provide the lead investment for the project should it come to fruition.