BuildingCourses/Workshops

Earthship Building Course Finishes in South India

Years ago, I was in India, half way through my Visa, wondering what to do and where to go. I was tired of the tourist trail and randomly googled ‘Earthship India’ and found exactly what I was looking for — a project in Tamil Nadu, building an Earthship for a fellow hoping to make a change toward a more sustainable lifestyle, starting with his home. Alex Leeor had chosen a beautiful place to build, at an organic farm just outside Kodai Kanal.

After a month of tire pounding, great food and countless interesting conversations with new friends, I was hired as the training coordinator (he probably felt that if he couldn’t get rid of me, he might as well make use of my enthusiasm). You can see Alex’s home here: www.biohome-karuna.net. Since he started, Alex has helped to teach and expose over 400 people to Earthship Biotecture principles.


I returned two years later and was impressed at how far the construction had come. Again, I helped organize volunteer labour and thought that some day we should continue to share these skills with people in India and from around the world. Alex however, was way ahead of me and just as he was completing his own home, he had started organizing a new building course down in the plains near Puttapatty.

That was just last year, and this year we recently completed a 2-week Earthship building workshop with people attending from around the world. It was a great experience and I think a lot of people gained some of the skills, knowledge and inspiration they needed to start their own projects back home.

While not a true ‘Earthship’ in the conventional sense (no grey/black water processing, botanical cells, etc.), the basics were there and we managed to get all the walls up and a roof on, in just two weeks! Hence we started to call it an Earthshed, since it seemed more fitting. While the structure itself served as the medium of instruction primarily, we were not shy of building expertise.

In addition to Alex, who had previously been involved in the creation of an Earthship in Brittany, France, his own home in India, the one in Puttapatty and had organized and hosted this new workshop, we were fortunate enough to have many other talented and knowledgeable trainers. Jon, a kindred spirit, carpenter and Earthship expert from the U.K., was intimately involved in the Brighton Earthship site as well as various other builds throughout Europe. Jon did a commendable job on-site, overseeing the build, giving instructions, keeping everyone safe with power tools and sharing his decades of building experience with the attendees.

The second week came with two new additions, Racheal Goldlust from Earthship Australia and Monica from the Biotecture headquarters in Taos, New Mexico.

Both had graduated from the first Earthship Academy and had a wealth of knowledge which they generously shared during the last week. Evening presentations and on site guidance with Jon helped to provide everyone with the opportunity to ask questions and explore aspects that interested them most, as well as explain the components that were absent in the building we were making.

All in all, it was a great experience and we look forward to hosting future natural building, sustainability and Permaculture courses in the near future. Check out our website (www.karunafarm.in) for more details.

5 Comments

  1. wonderful, i was searching if there is any one building earthship in India, and i found this, I wonder how much its gonna cost if i want to build one. ;)

  2. I m a bachelor in civil engineering residence of Mumbai India want to do earthship construction course please guide me.

  3. If building this way requires so many people to build a small house then how can a single person build own home on a piece of land by herself, it will be difficult and will need hiring of labour. Also how to source these rubber tyres and won’t that be unnatural too? I saw about cob homes and also it appears in all these videos it is not something an individual living alone can build all by themselves although it does not need rubber tyres. My vision for my future home is a place where nothing elese except natural soil or rocks are used to live within trees and no deforestation on land to build home or grow food upon and with a compost toilet. Ideally take a land that is not forested and build on it and then grow trees and fruit or veg and live on it off grid without electricity in a habitable zone (not a cold country) as I am in UK and it is rather cold in winters and not suitable for living without electricity. Solar panels also are not natural material and I will ideally avoid them as elctricity is not needed if you are meditating and eating fruit diet. Also cost of land is really huge making a life of meditation very difficult and requiring expenditure. Ideally each human should have space to live and meditate upon and nothing artificial should be there in life.

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