This month’s Communities Protecting our Coast climate hugs are going out to Tony and Susan Doig.
They live on a 10-acre property in Qualicum Bay. It is there, in June 2018, construction began on a unique project for Vancouver Island, a structure called an Earthship. TheDoighouse Earthship.
Before retirement, Tony worked in supply management, and Susan had spent the previous 11 years working in energy conservation and sustainability at Capilano University. They took the time to contemplate the retirement lifestyle that would best suit them. Sustainability and a situation that would embrace community were top of mind.
Susan had been familiar with the form of off-grid architecture called an Earthship in her teen years. She was intrigued, but Tony was not so sure.
Earthships are off-grid sustainable structures; the first was built in 1979 near Taos, New Mexico. Mike Reynolds was a young architect, he envisioned building ‘vessels’ designed to provide six essential human needs: comfortable shelter that doesn’t utilize fossil fuel, water, electricity, sewage management, waste management and food provision.
Tony was curious but had only to go to Taos and see the structures being built to be convinced to sign up for an eight-week training session consisting of classes, labs and hands-on instruction. In Taos he purchased plans for theDoighouse – these were later modified to meet a temperate rainforest climate and all the B.C. health, building and energy codes.
The process of building this unique structure has been complex, but the Regional District of Nanaimo has been good to work with and has shown some interest in the build. TheDoighouse is a radically sustainable, Earthship-inspired, off-grid home, food forest and learning centre. The project is rooted in permaculture principles and has been constructed with the help of many friends and guest volunteers.
Since breaking ground in 2018, they have encouraged and hosted volunteers both local and global to visit, share and enjoy hands-on learning. TheDoighouse Learning Centre is in place to provide multi-generational environmental education.
We arrived on a cold mid-winter morning, met Tony and Susan and had a tour of their “work still in progress Earthship”. Completion is now in sight; the atmosphere in the four large areas of the home is warm, cozy and welcoming. One by one, the six elements its original designer saw as essential were revealed as we walked from room to room. The inner workings of the structure were explained in a way that was easily understood.
Earthships have been built all over the globe; the largest Earthship community remains the 600-acre property outside of Taos. We are fortunate to have a visionary couple here in Oceanside who decided to explore a low-impact lifestyle where they could ‘host the world’. Group and private tours can be booked through their website. If you are interested in viewing the Doig Earthship home, contact: CPOConline.wordpress.com.
The Doigs would like to give the $50 donated by the Nanoose Bay Lions Club to the VIU Student Union Eco-club.
