Behind rows of cookie-cutter tract homes in Hesperia, California, at the southern edge of the Mojave Desert, hides what looks like a playground for grown-up hobbits. Arches, perfectly round dome-shaped structures and emergency shelters sprout from the sand.  Among these fanciful-looking constructions is a fully permitted 2,300-square-foot three-bedroom house, with a two-car garage and two bathrooms that are hooked up to the city’s sewer and electricity. The bedrooms and living rooms are painted in earthy tones. Arched ceilings and curved walls lend a coziness to the dwelling, which features modern amenities like an oversized closet and a conventional kitchen.  This home — called Earth One — and the surrounding structures were created by the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture, better known as CalEarth. The institute is at the heart of a growing movement grounded in the belief that the future of housing lies in the oldest material on Earth: the earth itself. Arched ceilings and curved walls lend a coziness to Earth One. Credit: Michaela Haas At first glance, the structures resemble adobe, the traditional mud brick homes in desert communities for centuries. But they are what their late founder, Nader Khalili, calls SuperAdobe. Unlike their sundried ancestors, these homes are constructed by filling sandbags with earth, coiling them into layers and reinforcing each row with barbed wire. The result is a series of strong, curved and fire-resistant structures — plastered for waterproofing, but humble in composition: dirt, sandbags, wire and water. “This whole village was built using this earth. We dug this courtyard from material right here, under our feet,” explains the founder’s daughter, Sheefteh Khalili, now CalEarth’s CFO. “That’s the beauty of it. You’re building with what’s already there.”  On a recent Saturday morning, more than a hundred people made the trek to remote Hesperia for the monthly open house to get a first-hand look at the unique structures. Several of them were wildfire survivors or contractors from Los Angeles on a mission to find fire-resistant, cost-effective alternatives for clients who lost everything in this year’s megafires. “I read that these SuperAdobes survived 7.2 [magnitude] earthquakes and fires and Hurricane Maria,” explained a grey-haired contractor who wants to check if his research pans out. “And they cost about a third of what traditional homes do.”