VillaBonuco: Self-Sustaining + Hurricane Resistant School in Puerto Rico

With the onset of another potentially devastating hurricane season, Puerto Rico prepares diligently with a vital sense of agency and autonomy. Earthships and Biotecture Planet Earth (501c.3 Non-Profit) have partnered up with Colectivo Verdolaga (a local non-profit) to build VillaBonuco - a hurricane-resistant, off-grid school for autonomous building and permaculture located in Aguada, PR. While most of the structure is being built with recycled materials, Biotecture Planet Earth still needs approximately $80,000 for the materials necessary to build the autonomous Earthship systems (rain catchment, localized electricity production, sewage treatment, blackwater landscaping, etc.)

I am here to crowd fund my participation in Phase 2 of the build (between June 20 - 30), and in continuation of my last fundraiser, help build the water collection systems of Villabonuco.

Below I have listed my expenses for this two week trip:

$700 - donation to Biotecture Planet Earth

$300 - Roundtrip ticket to Puerto Rico

= $1000

Anything to help the mission will be greatly appreciated and welcomed - $10, a share on social media, a shout in the street! I will be regularly posting build status updates, and plan on compiling a full report with photos upon returning to the States. Thank you in advance for your support!

Let's build the sustainable future of our dreams. Together.

Also check out this article from AlJazeera about the build.

Additional Notes:

Earthships are 100% autonomous and radically sustainable buildings made of mostly recycled and locally sourced materials.

My partner and I moved out of NYC in 2016 to live in and build Earthships in Taos, New Mexico. We successfully completed the September 2016 Earthship Academy Session, and moved to Austin, TX in 2017 to help apply Earthship Systems to existing structures in urban environments (among other super fun things). Below is a picture of the Earthship we had the pleasure of living in :)

Built in 1998, this 1000 sq ft. small Earthship came packed with a 1.2 kw solar system and about 1500 gallons of rain catchment. Although I can't necessarily say I loved satellite internet, the off-grid experience in this place was stellar. There is no active heating or cooling system, and yet the house would regularly stay between 65-72ºF. The newer Earthships (post-2005) hardly go above or below 70º, and are equipped with 4000+ gallons of rain catchment and over 4kw of power. Now having moved backed to a city again, I find myself itching for the kind of silence I experienced out there on the mesa. There is no reason why at least all new homes couldn't be built this way. Given that most of our energy is used to heat and cool homes today, I hope we can integrate these systems into our everyday life before it's too late.

Love,

Edward V. Amirault