Would you live in a home made from tyres, bottles, and dirt? This stunning Earthship tiny home is a masterclass in sustainable architecture and off-grid living—proving you can live beautifully and self-sufficiently, even in extreme environments.
Built using recycled materials like car tyres, glass bottles, and compacted earth, this tiny Earthship home collects solar energy, harvests rainwater, and reuses greywater to grow food in an indoor greenhouse. It’s a powerful example of eco-friendly design that works in harmony with nature.
Earthships hold a very special place in my heart. They were one of my first introductions to the world of alternative architecture and radically changed how I think about home design. When I started designing my first tiny house, the Seed of Life, I was, in a big way, trying to create a tiny house version of an Earthship.
In this episode, I reconnect with Earthship designer and builder Dr. Martin Freney, and we dive into one of his latest off-grid creations. It’s compact, resilient, and packed with clever features designed for maximum efficiency and minimal impact.
This Earthship isn’t just sustainable—it’s stunning. With curved walls, organic forms, and smart passive ventilation, it blends post-apocalyptic resilience with fantasy-like beauty. It performs year-round in both hot and cold climates, requires no connection to outside utilities, and looks like it belongs in a storybook.
We hope you enjoy this tiny house tour and deep dive into one of the most inspiring Earthship designs we’ve seen—a small but mighty home built to meet the challenges of the future.
The full build of this Earthship was brilliantly documented in the film Grounded By Design. The filmmakers kindly allowed us to use shots from this documentary. You can watch the full film on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GGh6ZE_yvUA?si=0ow7nhnlhB5eY0kH – It’s a great film and I highly recommend checking it out.
To find out more about Marty’s Earthship designing and building adventures, check out his website: https://www.earthshipecohomes.com.au
This epic Earthship is a BnB, so you can experience the place for yourself! Book your stay here: http://airbnb.com.au/h/earthbnbwillunga
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Find out more about this tiny house and others on our website: https://www.livingbiginatinyhouse.com/
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Presented and Produced by: Bryce Langston
Camera: Rasa Pescud & Bryce Langston
Editing: Sarah Binder & Rasa Pescud
Additional footage used with permission from the film Grounded By Design: https://youtu.be/GGh6ZE_yvUA?si=ud0EoWaemZKvXfYv
Title music in this video by Bryce Langston: http://www.youtube.com/brycelangston
‘Living Big in a Tiny House’ © 2025 Zyia Pictures Ltd
#Earthship #TinyHouse #OffGridLiving #SustainableHome #RecycledArchitecture
It was so great to have a chance to catch up with Marty after all these years. It’s hard to believe that it’s been about seven years since we first visited his own Earthship. This new project is seriously cool and it was so much fun to geek out with him once again over the design of this new creation! Earthships will always hold a very special place in my heart. We hope you enjoy the episode!
The full build of this Earthship was brilliantly documented in the film Grounded By Design. The filmmakers kindly allowed us to use shots from this documentary. You can watch the full film on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GGh6ZE_yvUA?si=0ow7nhnlhB5eY0kH – It’s a great film and I highly recommend checking it out.
With Love, Bryce & Rasa
My mind is blown that the entryway is 86° and they think that’s ok or comfortable to sit around in 😰 theres absolutely no way!! WAY TOO HOT! No way I’d do that. And theres no trees around house! I need some trees. To me I think it looks dead and boring out around the house which sucks because it’s such a cool house.
It seems to me that this would be better in a fire prone area than the current stick built homes
Oh how I love Earthships! How beautiful to watch Bryce get so excited about them. And all the design points go to the Aussies – proving that Earthships can be beautiful and don’t have to look like a Lord of the Rings hobbit home.
I am so inspired by this video. Incredible work!! I am curious: if there was a brush fire with high winds in the area, would the air tubes leading directly to the outside air cause an issue with the high winds blowing open the air tube doors and potentially bringing fire inside the building? If so, I am wondering about the possibility of adding an additional set of retractable fireproof doors to the other side of the air tubes, that could be deployed in this type of situation.
People might like the name “Earthen Homes”, thank you for the beauty of these lovely inviting and warm homes, it would make sense for councils all across Australia and the world to build this way🫠
How do we contact Marty about helping with building one in the Fleurieu peninsula in Adelaide?
The reason why governments are not approving of these homes is because it basically is all labor and natural materials and they lose a lot of money in manufacturing and production. Politicians are not getting their palms greased. This is also why a lot the green building materials are so expensive too. It’s a scam, and all it does is create more poverty.
Also, they started building with sticks because the wood is easily replaceable, and you don’t have to do as much maintenance long term. The lime has to be reapplied every 10 or so years, and the floors has to be sanded and resealed too.
What about using an incinerating toilet? You wouldn’t need a septic system or use the water from the garden then for that. I just came to know about those from an another Tiny Home Living video. The Youtube author of this channel should contact this professor about those. The only by product is bacteria rich soil that you can just put into the garden again.
I would love to build an Earthship like this next to The Weedy Garden 📽️🙌🫶🏻😁 for guests
awesome!
Where is this earth ship? How does one connect with the builder architect to build one.
I would love an earth ship ive always wanted a Mudbrick home since I seen one as a child just so special
Please Incorprate more home ships ,tree homes etc out of the box its so cool
step1 place the structure in a place that currently has an ideal climate