Dozens of people will be crushed throughout the living space of the 2,300-square-foot, three-bed, two-bath house with two garages at the southern tip of the Mohab Desert on an unusually warm Saturday in February.
Passing the open kitchen, you will marvel at the “good natural lighting” in the room. In the hallway outside the vast main bedroom, a tall bearded man compares the space with a “luxurious Airbnb experience,” with two elementary school-aged boys turning on a light switch on the wall. Turn the ceiling fan on and off.
“I’ve never seen a house like this,” one of them says, “But I like the shape of it.”
Justin Schatcher, a resident of Altadena whose home was considered unfree after Etonfire, praises the structure of the Superdove during his tour in Carrerose.
(William Leanne / For the era)
The home has central heating and air conditioning, a natural gas fireplace and ample closet space. Still, aside from modern amenities, this is not a normal home.
Instead of resembling a box, the structure consists of a sequence of arched domes surrounded by them, like a cottage that was lost straight from the storybook. The walls are curved and the ceiling is tall and arched. The entire building is built with only a few materials including soil, water, sandbags, barbed wire, plaster and a bit of cement.
However, the most notable thing about this structure is what visitors cannot see. The home can withstand huge natural disasters, whether tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, or fires.
Welcome to Earth One, Hesperia’s education campus and nonprofit organization Calearth has been defending the building style known as Super Dove for the past 30 years.
In Los Angeles, such a house is not the norm today, but it may be. And, according to the advocates of natural buildings, they may be the architectural solution for cities with more fireplaces.
The structure of a superdove relies on an arch, which is the shape of a load applied.
(William Leanne / For the era)
Once a month, the organization holds an open house. The house will host an open house where visitors can tour the countless land structures of the campus. The structure ranges from emergency shelters built in one day to one home of a massive earth that is fully permitted.
Since the recent Los Angeles wildfire, photos have been shared, especially on social media, showing a backyard super dove emerged from the Eton fire, even if the home was sacrificed in 1912. There were spikes. In flames.
Most superdoves are dome-shaped and their structure relies on arches. This is a shape that uses geometry to apply loads to offset gravity and seismic forces. However, these structures are infinitely customizable, expanded and endure your own desires. The home can be connected to any city’s electric grid and sewer lines and can be equipped with the same critters as other modern homes.
Some buildings in Calearth are used to study the long-term impact of elements on design.
(William Leanne / For the era)
In cities that are obsessed with prefabricated homes and mixed-use residential developments, it can be difficult to grasp the feasibility of living in a place made from just a few natural materials. That’s why more than 100 people gathered at the February Open House of Calearth, to see these structures firsthand and determine whether they are suitable for the project, it’s a wellness center, a backyard for kids. Playhouses, living compounds and other friends and homes, they come back after losing it in a previous fire.
“A lot of people are really rushing to rebuild, but that’s a concern,” says attendees at Elliot Hotstetter, an Altadena resident who lost his home to Etonfire. “It takes plenty of time to get back right. I’m looking at everything and looking at all options, but my next home should be fireproof. That’s the main consideration is.”
Calearth’s Superadobe design has been studied by NASA, used and used by the United Nations. The structure is built in 60 countries around the world, but in California, particularly in California, the US, and in particular, the board members of the state of California, Dastan and Sifte Kariri believe that they can make the most difference. It is rarely used here.
“The problem isn’t just that we start from scratch. Dastan, who has been struggling with his sister since 2008 after the death of his father, Nader Kariri, the founder of the organization, explained: It’s there.
Dastan Kariri, right, is president of Calearth and his sister, Sheefteh, is the organization’s chief financial officer.
(William Leanne / For the era)
“If everyone is gathering at this moment, it could be an incredible opportunity to build these neighborhoods with safe, fire-resistant homes that work in harmony with nature,” Dastan said. I’ll add. “It could make Los Angeles a beacon of a country that revolutionizes housing to be safe from climate change.”
Iranian expatriate Nader has launched Callearth to provide prompt and affordable housing for the homeless and poor. Inspired by his trip in the Iranian desert, he devised a structure that could be constructed using both soil and fire exposed soil from close by, making the elements impermeable. The final result of his experiment was Super Dove, a coiled dome of sandbags filled with earth reinforced with barbed wire. The structure is coated with plaster to ensure waterproofness. Calearth argues that superdoves are not time-limited for years, decades or centuries that can last.
Calearth has a long-standing practice of providing free online building curricula to people affected by natural or artificial disasters. Since the start of the wildfires in Southern California in January, the organization has seen the video by 131%.
On-site workshops and apprenticeship programs are also offered throughout the year at the Hesperia campus. Superadobe’s blueprint is open source. There are no patents for the design. It is a deliberate move on Callearth’s part as they attempt to share this knowledge “in the service of mankind and the environment.”
Andrew Martz examines the window. Superadobe homes are endlessly customizable.
(William Leanne / For the era)
Internationally, Super Doves are being constructed not only as home and backyard offices, but also as island resorts, women’s health clinics and orphanages. Furthermore, these structures have withstand the most extreme natural events. Nepal’s Super Dove survived the 7.3 and 7.8 earthquakes that levelled surrounding towns in 2015. In Puerto Rico, he survived Hurricane Maria in 2017. And multiple superdoves emerged unharmed from the 40-day Thomas fire that plagued Ventura County in 2017-18.
Calearth did not only develop this form of land construction. It took quite a while to ensure the qualifications required for the structure to become a viable living unit. Superadobe has received approval from the International Code Conference as a form of Adobe Architecture, and the organization is working to obtain approval from the Structures International Residential Code.
Callearth is not the only organization that has felt the opportunity in the aftermath of the Southern California wildfires. Architect Ben Loescher of Loescher Meachem Architects Inc. is cautiously optimistic about the comeback of the fireplace land buildings in the area.
“In the wake of these fires, we have no excuses anymore. We need to look for new ways to do things. One of these new things is to rediscover the planet as a building material,” he said. says Loescher, who has long advocated Adobe Architecture and has run the advocacy and education organization Adobeisnotsoftware.
“Fortunately, we know more about Adobe than we did 50 years ago. We can classify, test and design it just like any other building material.”
Justin Schacter examines the sink inside the superdove. The home can be connected to any city’s electric grid and sewer lines.
(William Leanne / For the era)
Adobe has been dating back to Southern California for hundreds of years as both soil building materials and soil construction styles, growing throughout Santa Barbara, similar to the 1920s in Los Angeles’ former Sonora Town. . county. There are still many adverts in Los Angeles, including Avila Adobe on Orvera Street, widely considered to be the oldest home in Los Angeles at the age of 207, and Gilmore Adobe, not expected to be the outlook between the glove and the glove. . The original farmers market.
In addition to the fire resistance of buildings with earthen materials, Adobe has other strong properties. They are built quickly and can be built at a much lower cost than most modern homes.
By using the Earth as a building material, they also offer environmental benefits. Fewer building materials need to be shipped, reducing carbon emissions during transportation, and when or when burning a neighborhood, fewer toxins are released in the air, improving air quality. , there will be less damage caused by smoke to the facility residents. I wasn’t confused about the fire.
This is one of the main reasons why Justin Schachter, a resident of Altadena, whose home was deemed non-existent after Etonfire, decided to attend Calearth’s open house.
“When I heard about this, I didn’t know if I wanted to drive to Hesperia for two hours,” says Schachter, who works as an electrical engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab. “I’m still evacuated. I’ve been traveling a few days or weeks at a time and I’m tired. My landlord just stopped my lease and I have to go outside. I have something. But I am glad that I came here only to better understand that if our house was not made of bulls, what was not burnt was not so affected. .”
Backback A fire-torn neighborhood with natural materials from Los Angeles makes economic sense. The cost of building a super dove is about one-third of the price of building a house of the same size using traditional construction. And even within the cost range, the majority of it is labor. However, the process is not always easy. Seismic activity in California makes it difficult for homeowners to approve building plans, as the state has some of the world’s strictest building standards. However, that is not impossible as the superadve already built in the state has been proven. It takes time, resources and back and forth in the city’s architecture department. This is what Marisia Miernovka, a resident of Pallisard in the Pacific, hopes to change.
Last month, Miernowska launched a Change.org petition urged the city of Los Angeles to rebuild using fire-resistant, natural building techniques. They seek funding for updated building codes and extensive engineer-approved plans to facilitate the complex permitting process for individuals to navigate. It also advises financial incentives for natural building projects in LA County, along with investments in research, educational courses and outreach programs. So far, the petition has received nearly 5,000 signatures.
“I am amazed at how many engineers, architects, builders, craftsmen and me, not just ordinary people who want a healthy home,” says Miernovska. “Fires are part of our natural ecosystem and LA is ready to be rebuilt in a different way.”
It certainly feels true as attendees at Callearth’s February Open House filter the filters through the fascinating living space of Earth 1. One visitor crouches down the couch in the living room, her head tangles behind her head as she stares at the tall ceiling, gags from the women in the guest bedroom marvel at the depth of the built-in closet. This space doesn’t look like a list that will keep Zillow busy, but it’s something that more people imagine themselves going home.
“If we put the house back to their state, they’ll just burn the next time and that really doesn’t make any sense,” says the hostator, who plans to return to the building workshop with his son. “The world has been using Earth materials in architecture for a long time. This is a great opportunity to really take a minute and make some wise decisions.”
Having lost his home to Eton Fire, Elliott Hoster plans to spend time on rebuilding.
(William Leanne / For the era)
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