Sirius Community
The Visit

The Environmental Studies Senior Seminar Class visited the Sirius Community in March 2004. This picture shows Daniel Greenberg, director of Sirius, giving the students and Professor Jill Bubier a tour of the community while explaining the concept of ecovillages

"Green energy locally generated reduces our dependence on practices that damage the environment - fossil fuel over-utilization and nuclear power produced through fission."

"Energy captured from wind and sun are stored in deep cell battery arrays and inverted as needed for home and community use. Passive solar design, super insulation and ultra efficient appliances reduce load requirements to a fraction of that generally accepted as normal or average."

- Sirius Community

The "Eco friendly home" is a Cobb House. Cobb is an old English way of building that uses a mixture of sand, straw, and clay ("Cobb" is actually an old English word for "blob", but the community thought Cobb House sounds better than Blob House). It is built up like a coil pot and allow some very creative forms.

In this picture you can see the composting toilet bathroom (which isn't finished) and a cobb oven, which is used to cook bread and cookies. The steel roof collects rainwater which is used in the gardens below.

-Daniel Greenberg