One Day I'll Build An Earthship — martharsteele.baby

One Day I’ll Build an Earthship explores the connections between sustainable art-making and agriculture. This series presents Steele’s research toward building an “Earthship". A concept born in response to the energy crisis of the 1970s, Earthships are passive solar homes built using natural materials and recycled waste. Common building materials include tires, scrap car metal, and glass bottles. They are designed to be self-sustaining–living symbiotically within the surrounding ecosystem.

Steele’s research into agriculture began through their work on Howe Island’s organic farm Root Radicals, and continued through the Loving Spoonful’s Farm-Specific Trades Program and the Kingston Area Seed Saving Initiative (KASSI). These experiences inform Steele’s material and ecological research. Reimagining and transforming materials through this lens, One Day I’ll Build an Earthship conceptualizes the Earthship as a space—a site of regeneration, connection, and learning from the earth and reciprocity.

Windows for an Earthship (I) synthesizes much of this research. Sourcing recycled steel from the KIMCO metal recycling facility, the architectural shelter-like form of this work shapes a haven. The glass panels are a combination of discarded stained-glass off-cuts from local artists and melted-down glass bottles donated by the Kingston Recycling Facility. Windows for an Earthship (I) is an investigation into modular applications of recycled glass in horticultural architectural contexts, embracing viewers to rest under its form and deluge of light.