Some want to go off the grid, and architect/scavenger Michael Reynolds is there to help, with his “Earthships,’ fully self-sustaining, green homes in New Mexico that look like they were built on the wrong side of an apocalypse. Yet they have a great deal of charm, in addition to being beyond the reach of civilization. From an interview with Reynolds by Roc Morin at Vice:

“Vice:

How do Earthships change the lives of their inhabitants?

Michael Reynolds:

When you get in a situation where all of your utilities come directly to you from the sun, wind, and rain, it empowers you. So what if the economy crashes? So what if the politics don’t work out? People are still in charge of their lives. The biggest change that happens is that people become less dependent on the powers that be and more secure in their own being.

 Vice:

Is that what you had in mind in the early 70s when you first started?

Michael Reynolds:

No. I didn’t have a master plan. I just followed my nose, responding to one thing and then another. I wanted to make the buildings out of things we throw away rather than cutting down trees. Then I wanted to harvest my own water because water’s getting to be an issue all over the planet. I wanted to make my own power so I wouldn’t be vulnerable to power outages and reinforce the need for nuclear power plants. Then I started seeing that sewage was not being treated right anywhere on the planet, so I wanted to be responsible for my own. And I didn’t like the food that I purchased, even in health food stores. It’s still grown for money and has dyes and all kinds of chemicals in it, so I wanted to do my own food. One thing led to another, and now I live an absolutely independent, decentralized method of living.

 Vice:

Do you have a sense of why we make buildings the way we do? Why are straight lines the standard across the Western world?

Michael Reynolds:

The idea started out from the ease of producing hard-edged materials and shipping them. Every building you see is a square box. But look at nature—a wasp nest or a beaver dam. It feels a lot better on your mind to be in a soft organic building than it does to be in a hard-edged, industrial-type building.”