The first tornado-resistant Earthship — an off-grid, self-sustaining home built with recycled material — is landing in Douglas County.
Julie Walker was eyeing the political climate and wondering how to secure her future when she decided it was time to build a home using aluminum cans, old tires and a whole lot of concrete. It’s under construction about 4 miles west of the edge of Lawrence.
“I’m retired. There’s no guarantee I’m going to have Social Security,” she said. “You know, I have a pension, but … when you’re on fixed income, you don’t have a lot of options.”
Walker spent the last 46 years working as a professional stage manager in Chicago, although she grew up in Newton, Kansas, and attended Wichita State University. When her husband died eight years ago, she started thinking about moving closer to her brother, who lives around Lawrence.
She sold the 10-acre farm she and her husband owned to finance a project with Earthship Biotecture, an architecture and construction company founded by the “Garbage Warrior” Michael Reynolds.
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Earthships are Reynolds’ brainchild, and he’s been iterating on the theme for decades now. Nearly every structure is unique — Walker’s is the first model meant to be tornado-resistant.
The build relies heavily on steel rebar concrete buried under soil. Over that is an ethylene propylene diene terpolymer (EDPM) synthetic rubber membrane covered by plaster.
The structure is peppered with used aluminum cans and pounded, or filled, tires. The first two levels of tires are pounded with gravel so they don’t wick water up through the dirt, and the rest have clay and grinders, or recycled concrete.
Ellie Brown-Wolf, an Earthship Biotecture employee, said they picked up 20,000 cans from Arrowhead Stadium for Walker’s home.
“There is really no wood vital to the structure, so it can’t really burn,” said Rory Morlan, the foreman. “It’s kind of a concrete superstructure. We’re basically creating a bunker above ground. So there’s nothing that can blow away on it. It would pretty much be impossible for a tornado to damage. About the only thing that it’s not resistant to is a big flood.”
Morlan has been building Earthships worldwide since the late 1990s. He’s one of six members of the Earth Biotecture team currently stationed in town to help Walker’s build. The rest of the team consists of Earthship Academy students learning how the unique construction works.
Walker, too, is pounding tires, laying concrete and learning how to install solar panels.
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“I’ve studied it. I know how to do it, and I am hands-on,” she said. “… I know how it all is put together.”
Since they’re in the process of building a new model, Walker doesn’t know what the final cost will be. Materials costs are changing and she’s recruited a large construction team when others might build an Earthship solo. But she said it’s the right financial move in the long run.
“This is how I can still live and not be eating cat food,” she said.
‘I fully intend to live ‘til I’m 110 in that building’
Walker’s Earthship has four vaults, or domes, which will transform into a guest room and bedroom, each with their own bathroom; a kitchen and laundry room with on-demand hot water from a pressure tank; and a living and dining area.
Walker said that once her home is complete, hopefully by the end of April, her necessities will be covered.
A Douglas County spokesperson confirmed that Walker has a residential new single-family permit for the project. The county required her to install well or metered water. She opted for the latter and expects a $35 water bill each month.
The vast majority of her water will come from the elements.
Plaster on the roof will direct rainwater and snowmelt to cisterns that can collect up to 5,000 gallons. The water will go through 50-, 500- and 1,000-micron filters, plus a ceramic filter for drinking water.
Liquid from the bathroom sinks, washer and shower will feed into the greenhouse planters installed along the front of the Earthship. Whatever the plants spit back out will go to the toilets. Water from the kitchen sink and toilets will flow directly to the septic tank.
Walker’s barn and Earthship will be powered by solar from Good Energy Solutions, with a backup generator if needed.
HVAC also won’t add to her electricity bill. She’s got geothermal energy — the tires will absorb and disperse heat as the weather fluctuates. Then, every room has a door with a transom window up front and a cooling tube in the back. The tube is buried under many feet of earth, keeping the air within cool. If Walker opens the transom window, she can let the hot air out, while opening the cooling tube welcomes the chill in.
“Nobody ever believes that the house will heat itself, so we have to have baseboard heaters in each room, which may never get used,” she said.
Walker looks forward to living in her own personal jungle, surrounded by banana trees, fig trees and, hopefully, condo avocados. She’s also seeding an orchard on her property and gardens with larger food beds.
“I fully intend to live ‘til I’m 110 in that building,” she said.
‘Normal houses seem boring now’
Brown-Wolf comes from Taos, New Mexico, where there’s an Earthship subdivision.
She said sleeping in one is magical. Her room turns golden in the sunlight, and the acoustics are primo.
“Living in an earthship is like living in a jungle,” she said. “So you wake up in the morning and you walk out, and your fig trees are there, and maybe a couple little critters. I like the little frogs in there.”
Mia Krasenstein, an Earthship Academy student working on Walker’s home, is also sold on the Earthship lifestyle.
“They’re so cool and they’re so efficient. They’re so smart and they’re so creative and artsy and full of greenery,” she said. “I just — normal houses seem boring now.”
Krasenstein is from Yallingup in western Australia. She left a corporate environmental job where she was stuck behind the computer all day to complete level one of the Earthship Academy and help with Walker’s build before she finishes level two.
A selling point for many Earthship lovers is their adaptability to natural disasters, which are worsening with climate change. Fires are an issue in Australia, so Krasenstein is drawn to a house that can withstand the extremes while still providing food and water.
Brown-Wolf said that Earthships allow their inhabitants to live on their own, but they’re human magnets.
“I do also think it is a lesson on community,” she said.
“I like that you can live on your own and be self-sufficient, but also it just naturally brings people in,” she added. “… Everyone in Lawrence has been just interested and coming over, and that’s the beauty of it, too.”
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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at [email protected].
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