An Overview of the Project
Background:
In 2002, I was sitting around one weekend and casually mentioned to my wife that I really liked the old farm house we were living in but it was too bad we could not retire there. She then pointed out that I was completely nuts and to please explain myself! I proceeded to explain that the 1921 structure was not only an energy pig and required constant maintenance, but the accessibility was terrible. It was certainly ok for us when we were in our 20’s, but it would not work very well when we got in our 80’s. Most of the elderly folks I have known were forced to leave their homes before they were ready because of mobility, access, maintenance, and cost issues. This is not a road I wished to go down and started to look for some alternatives. There was no way to effectively remodel the farm house and building a new traditional home was too expensive. That left me with possibly building a new home myself. A large task indeed, but I felt I was still young enough to tackle a project like this, better now than when I’m older and have fewer choices. I started to search the internet for high efficient house designs and came across a few sites that talked about self sustainable designs. I also found the IRENEW site. I attended my first Energy Expo in 2002 and have been on a learning missing ever since!
Disclaimer: Tirehenge is not an Official Earthship. Mike Reynolds or his organization did not provide construction drawings and is not overseeing the construction process for this project. However, the design and construction techniques are based on the Earthship concept provided by their website, books and videos. This project also includes elements from PAHS, Monolithic Domes, and Ferrocement. Tirehenge can be considered a hybrid design, or possibly an Earthship that has been adjusted to work in Iowa’s environment.
Goals:
From very traditional to very alternative, there are about a million ways to design a house and a million more ways to construct one. I needed some direction so I created a list of goals I wanted the new house to achieve.
· Easy accessibility meaning a one level, open floor plan
· Energy efficient
· Maintenance free, or as close to it as possible
· Minimal environmental impact
· Materials must be low cost and easily available
· Low tech, easy construction method
I spent the next 4 years researching many different ways to build and found that three concepts really seemed to be what I was looking for (Earthships, Monolithic Domes, and Passive Annual Heat Storage). Interesting enough, Earthships can also incorporate PAHS and thin-shelled domes in the construction process, so an Earthship it was going to be.
Why name it TireHenge?
While I was researching houses that had been built, I noticed that many owners had named their homes. When it came time to start construction, we had laid out the tires in a circle and oriented everything to the sun. It looked like a mini Stonehenge, but made from tires. So, “Tirehenge” was born!
House floor plan:
Tirehenge is based on the simplest form of Earthship construction, the HUT module. The upper half of the walls are packed tires, the bottom half is called an Earth Cliff. All modules are then tied together with an attached greenhouse which contains greywater planters, bathroom, utilities, and kitchen area. Eventually, Tirehenge will also include a secondary greenhouse for additional planter space. It is a single basic design that gets replicated as many times as needed. Tirehenge will start out as a two module structure, and then eventually expand to four modules.
The project began in 2006, however due to a series of unforeseen events; construction did not really take off until 2009. After 3 years of searching for other Earthships in Iowa with no luck, I decided to jump in and start building. I believe this is the first Earthship to be constructed in Iowa (if you have an Earthship in Iowa, please contact me). Hopefully, this site will help motivate and inspire people so many more Earthships will be built.
In 2002, I was sitting around one weekend and casually mentioned to my wife that I really liked the old farm house we were living in but it was too bad we could not retire there. She then pointed out that I was completely nuts and to please explain myself! I proceeded to explain that the 1921 structure was not only an energy pig and required constant maintenance, but the accessibility was terrible. It was certainly ok for us when we were in our 20’s, but it would not work very well when we got in our 80’s. Most of the elderly folks I have known were forced to leave their homes before they were ready because of mobility, access, maintenance, and cost issues. This is not a road I wished to go down and started to look for some alternatives. There was no way to effectively remodel the farm house and building a new traditional home was too expensive. That left me with possibly building a new home myself. A large task indeed, but I felt I was still young enough to tackle a project like this, better now than when I’m older and have fewer choices. I started to search the internet for high efficient house designs and came across a few sites that talked about self sustainable designs. I also found the IRENEW site. I attended my first Energy Expo in 2002 and have been on a learning missing ever since!
Disclaimer: Tirehenge is not an Official Earthship. Mike Reynolds or his organization did not provide construction drawings and is not overseeing the construction process for this project. However, the design and construction techniques are based on the Earthship concept provided by their website, books and videos. This project also includes elements from PAHS, Monolithic Domes, and Ferrocement. Tirehenge can be considered a hybrid design, or possibly an Earthship that has been adjusted to work in Iowa’s environment.
Goals:
From very traditional to very alternative, there are about a million ways to design a house and a million more ways to construct one. I needed some direction so I created a list of goals I wanted the new house to achieve.
· Easy accessibility meaning a one level, open floor plan
· Energy efficient
· Maintenance free, or as close to it as possible
· Minimal environmental impact
· Materials must be low cost and easily available
· Low tech, easy construction method
I spent the next 4 years researching many different ways to build and found that three concepts really seemed to be what I was looking for (Earthships, Monolithic Domes, and Passive Annual Heat Storage). Interesting enough, Earthships can also incorporate PAHS and thin-shelled domes in the construction process, so an Earthship it was going to be.
Why name it TireHenge?
While I was researching houses that had been built, I noticed that many owners had named their homes. When it came time to start construction, we had laid out the tires in a circle and oriented everything to the sun. It looked like a mini Stonehenge, but made from tires. So, “Tirehenge” was born!
House floor plan:
Tirehenge is based on the simplest form of Earthship construction, the HUT module. The upper half of the walls are packed tires, the bottom half is called an Earth Cliff. All modules are then tied together with an attached greenhouse which contains greywater planters, bathroom, utilities, and kitchen area. Eventually, Tirehenge will also include a secondary greenhouse for additional planter space. It is a single basic design that gets replicated as many times as needed. Tirehenge will start out as a two module structure, and then eventually expand to four modules.
The project began in 2006, however due to a series of unforeseen events; construction did not really take off until 2009. After 3 years of searching for other Earthships in Iowa with no luck, I decided to jump in and start building. I believe this is the first Earthship to be constructed in Iowa (if you have an Earthship in Iowa, please contact me). Hopefully, this site will help motivate and inspire people so many more Earthships will be built.
Current Cost and Progress Logs
| tirehenge_cost_log.mht |
| progresslog.mht |
