Building the first Earthship Ashram with 30 Volunteers and NO Budge...

I arrived in Rishikesh with great expectation, excitement and nerves. What I was about to do was even more ambitious than any of my previous workshops, mainly because of the time frame and size of the Earthship that we were making. I had come up with a totally original design that is based on a model that functions well in hot and cold climates. Yogi Amitram has requested two large U shaped rooms as well as a front greenhouse for grey water recycling in food producing planters (botanical cells). Amitram also wanted mezzanines in both rooms, which meant that we needed a tall roof to accommodate the height. We had a big group of around 30 volunteers, and a few Nepali to help with the grunt work and heavy carrying. We didn't have any skilled labour for most of the start of this, and so as always it was up to me to play all the roles necessary to ensure this large building would work out!

I spent the first night in a hotel in Rishikesh, and planned to meet Yogi Amitram the next day. I had a bit of time to wonder around the city and take everything in. It was VERY clear that this was no ordinary city, it felt so very holy and incredibly pure. You couldn't buy meat anywhere in the whole city, it is completely vegetarian! There were Baba's dressed in robes, and many international people who had come for yoga or spiritual reasons. The great Ganga river flows through Rishikesh, and I had never seen or touched it before. The Ganga water is relatively clean in Rishikesh as it is quite close to the source in the Himalayas. When Yogi Amitram came the next morning the first thing we did was to go there, and I dipped myself in the ICE cold water several times whilst making a prayer for my friends and family. It was a beautiful experience and blessing and was a great start to the workshop!

Yogi Amitram had been busy collecting donations for project, and had just enough for us to buy the things we needed. He told me he was in touch with a few wealthy 'Gurus' and that they were quite supportive and were going to donate. He said that many Gurus were quite surprised to hear that he was trying to build an Ashram from old car tyres, and whilst they didn't really understand or even like the idea, they respected Yogi Amitram and had faith in his vision. I totally understood! When you explain to someone that you are making a house from tyres and bottles it sounds pretty awful, and the images that come to mind are nothing like the reality of what an Earthship looks like. We were both confident that when we were finished and people saw it that then they would understand. You would never know it is made from tyres because they are plastered over like any wall, and end up looking very natural and beautiful.

We both had a million questions in our heads, and had to do a lot of shopping before we went up the mountain to Yogi Amitra's new Ashram. Shopping in India can be a challenging experience, with very limited materials and very small shops scattered around everywhere. Finding what you need means asking everyone and driving from shop to shop to see what they have! I made about 1000 decisions in that morning and we bought a lot of materials mainly relating to the roof and skylights. Good planning is essential for a successful and smooth build, and I had to make sure we had EVERYTHING we needed right down to the last screw! I will list below the main items that we bought for the job! Note that these are only the materials we needed for the main build and not any finishing work.

The Plans

Shopping List

- 20 assorted sized sledge hammers for pounding tyres
- Shovels
- Strong buckets to carry dirt
- String to mark out level heights
- Plastic sheets for the damp course in the tyre wall
- Glass Bottles
- Plastic Bottles
- Metal drink cans
- Chicken Mesh Rolls. Will be nailed to the tyre walls prior to the final plastering to improve the grip.
- Lots of Nails of various lengths AND metal washers that fit!
- Cement for roof work and also some half tyre bricks at the end of each row.
- Steel rods and binding wire for the roof frame. 6mm, 8mm, 12mm 18mm
- Wood for skylights
- Polycarbonate / Plexiglass for skylights
- Wood Screws and glue
- Gloves

It's always surprising how hard it can be to find things like glass bottles and tin cans. In India nearly all of this is collected and managed by locals, and so in many cases you have to pay and haggle to get them! They are still very cheap though, and after much searching we managed to secure a lot of bottles and cans. We would use them decoratively, but also to help make the bond beam ( I'll explain what that is next time). After a very long day, and spending most of Yogis money we finally got back on his motorbike and drove the one and half hour journey up the mountain and to Amitram's Ashram.

Flying by the seat of your pants is something that I guess I have gotten used to! I look back now and do wonder how the hell I did this. I barely had a plan, and what I did have was mostly in my head. I just took each step as it came, and had to think hard and fast nearly all of the time. This could have been a source of great stress, what with having to plan and manage the entire build whilst teaching and watching everyone at the same time... but it wasn't! The way that Amitram held space was just divine. Once everyone had arrived, he brought us all into a circle and adorned us with flower rosettes and gave us all gifts and shared his vision and beautiful words. It looked like a REALLY good group, and everyone was SO happy and FULL of energy that i just knew this was going to be a good workshop!

Yoga gave me a tour of the Ashram, and took me to the location for the site of the build. It was right near the edge of the mountain, and looked onto incredible panoramic views of the whole of Rishikesh. The plot where the building would go was facing due south, and not facing the view! Rishikesh gets VERY hot in the summer and a bit cold in the winter. My main concern was overheating, since I know how well an Earthship stays warm in colder climates. Facing the windows of the house due East was a bad move both in terms of getting too much solar gain, but also because you wouldn't even face the view! I used all my powers of persuasion and finally Yogi agreed that we had to do a lot of digging so that we could re-orientate the building to face West. When facing west the building would pick up some sun, but not the full heat of the day.

Most of the volunteers were busy settling in, and setting up their tents. There was only one small shack on the Ashram which housed the kitchen and two small rooms where Amitram and I stayed. Whilst I sat on my bed in deep thought, Yoga came and explained to me that there was a problem. The government water lines had been stopped due to some problems, and they had just a few thousand liters of water in the tank. It would probably just be enough for building work, but we wouldn't have enough for drinking water or indeed to wash! I let that sink in. Pounding tyres with dirt all day long in the heat and dust is dirty work! The thought of not being able to wash, and indeed all the volunteers too was something that I really hoped would be OK. I really wasn't sure if people would stick it out like this! The drinking water was easy to solve, as we just bought large drinking water containers.. but the washing was going to be another issue!

We were really lucky to have a very special man called Amit Bist cook for us. He was an Ayurvedic cook and volunteered his time to support the project. WOW. This man worked his ASS off the entire time with such devotion and love. He saved us all because his food was SO good, full of love, and prepared using the ancient wisdom of Ayurvedic Cooking. The highlight of every day was of course his meals, and his visits to the site with iced drinks and refreshments.. always something different! Amit, wherever you are, God bless you!

On that first night I played everyone a movie about Earthships using a projector that I had brought with me. We all watched together and at the end I answered questions, and we all had a good chat. There is nothing like a good movie to inspire people even more, and by the end of that first day we were all super excited and raring to go. The volunteers all made a nice fire and all hung out and enjoyed each others company until I don't know what time.. I went to sleep!

This is how it all started! One man's vision and determination had brought us this far. 30 People had travelled 1000's of miles, with a great desire to learn something that they believe is important. The people that volunteered understand the need to build and live differently, and I have a great respect for everyone that did attend and support this great cause. When we do come together for a common purpose, and it is done for the good of the people, it is such an amazing experience. I don't think anyone viewed this as work, because we were supporting a beautiful man who was doing good for the world. All i can remeber seeing is smiles and amazing poeple who just all played their part.. WE WERE ALL TEAM PLAYERS, and when that happens we can enter a world of magic and infinate possibilities. I have never built an Earthship like this before; no one had .. and yet I had faith and total surrender that things would work out. I felt like I was really serving the greater good, and all I had to do was be a good instrument of the Divine in order to pull this off.. Please do come back next time and see how the start of the build happend. This will inlcude plenty of detail as to what we did, as well as stories!

Please enjoy a few more photos!