Article source: Luigi Rosselli Architects

Architecturally, earthships form part of the discipline of adaptive reuse. They embrace a style of architecture developed in the late 20th century, which aims to utilise both natural and upcycled materials to create passive, sustainable, and often off-grid dwellings. Here, with Luigi Rosselli Architects’ Earth-Ship, that concept of adaptive reuse and connection to the environment is extended with the revitalisation of an existing home whose original design was akin to that of a drilling platform, hovering above, and entirely disconnected from its craggy and precipitous surroundings.

Luigi Rosselli has never much been a fan of ‘pole houses’, constructed with the intention of admiring the view from above while denying contact and symbiosis with the natural habitat the house occupies. As such, the aim with Earthship was to bring the existing two storeys of the house down to earth by adding a further two storeys below them to create a direct link to the garden.

Image Courtesy © Prue Ruscoe

• Architects: Luigi Rosselli Architects
• Project: Earthship
• Location: Mosman, Australia
• Photography: Prue Ruscoe
• Project Architects: Nicola Ghirardi
• Interior Designer: Romaine Alwill for Alwill Interiors Pty Ltd
• Builder: TC Build
• Rammed Earth Construction: Earth Dwellings Australia

(more…)