Earthships as a de-sign process to harmonize with the environment

Abstract The concept of Earthship is a type of contemporary living space that potentially functions as self-sustainable processes within a closed semi-natural ecosystem for its inhabitants through the integration of repurposed commodities and natural local resources. This approach of inhabitation offers a trajectory for co-development with the environment and a creative evolutionary process of Farouk Seif’s de-sign . The research identifies how the object(s) (Earthship and materials used), the subject(s) (creator and inhabitant) and the environment(s) (natural and built) are interrelated during the co-development process for a trajectory of semiosis. What we will see in this research is that the trajective process of an inhabitant aiming for self-sustainable off-the-grid living within an environment requires a competency and balance to resonate with the surrounding ecological system. Within this framework, the concept of de-sign serves as a means to examine how intentionality and deliberate acts within the creative process to live self-sustainably is oriented towards ecological and anthropocentric systems. The purpose of this research is to elaborate how the concept of Earthships as a self-sustainable living space may have a point of centrality focused on human inhabitation and can be further developed to evoke ecological awareness and sensitivity.