EARTHSHIP IRONBANK – building a permitted simple survival model Earthship in the Adelaide hills.
Earthship Ironbank is the work of Martin Freney – designer and Earthship enthusiast – in the Adelaide hills, South Australia. Martin started the tyre work for Earthship Ironbank in 2009 when Michael Reynolds was in town for seminars, and the idea grew to design and permit a simple survival style one bedroom Earthship. Martin works for the university of South Australia as an industrial designer, and so did the design and drafting himself, and took it to a private certifier and engineer before going to council to get it approved. By mid 2013 he had the go ahead and building started Jan 6th 2014, with a 5 week workshop consisting of 25 interns and 10 crew.
The Adalaide hills gave us everything from 2 day down pours to 45 degree scorchers and bush fire evacuations. The building gave us easy times (wonderful clay onsite for cob) and difficult times (especially the concrete form work without cans and excessive steel requests from engineers). The food was unreal, the people enthusiastic and passionate, and the community formed will never be forgotten. Number of people changed by this event – everyone.
Martin Freney (owner) right, Rosa Henderson (crew) left
Bottle bricks going in on the East/west partition wall under the vault
Building the east and west vaults for the entry and bathroom
This building will be a B&B when completed, to give people a chance to really experience living in an Earthship. Martin is also doing his extended Phd work here, having numerous temperature sensors in around and through this building, measuring inside and outside temperatures throughout the year and charting how the temperatures stabilise inside the building. Work will continue on this building in April with a 2 week natural finishes workshop.
More info at earthshipironbank.com.au
To request a summery of the build details (materials, design, permitting, internship) or questions or comments please email rosa.scarlette@gmail.com
Rosa Henderson