If you are new to WebUrbanist, click here to sign up for the RSS feed and take a look through our archives and galleries
(Check out our complete collection of 70 Works of Recycled Art and Design.)
Have you ever thought of recycling as a creative act? To recycle something doesn’t necessarily mean just hauling used bottles, cans and cardboard to the curbside for pickup. Some creative people, either out of need or personal interest have taken the notion of recycling to the next level, using products that would be melted or shredded as whole objects in the construction of creative new buildings.
Bottle walls sounds like something a quirky eccentric would construct just for fun. In point of fact, the oldest surviving bottle house was constructed out of over 50,000 beer bottles in 1907, due to the lack of lumber available in the deeserts of Nevada. Though many bottle buildings are decades old, recent structures around the world have been built out of necessity in places where both building supplies are scarce and other recycling methods are unavailable.
The now-famous Texas beer can house, however, was indeed the result of one man’s eccentricity. What began as one man’s bored urge in the 1960s resulted in a 2-decade, 40,000-can creation that truly is a strange wonder of the world. John, the house’s creator, is survived by his wife Mary, who still invites the public to come and see his amazing creation. John was just an ordinary man who saved beer bottles for years, until he finally came up with a clever way to use them. The latter two images above come via The Beer Can House dot Org.
A cardboard house may seem even more implausible than one constructed of beer cans. With the right water-proofing, however, just such a house would be not only sustainable but also exceedingly affordable. This so-called house of the future is designed with exterior waterproofing and water storage under the floor to protect it from the water and from blowing over in the wind. Of course, cardboard is also a highly collapsible building material, making the shipment of the house also more environmentally friendly, efficient and inexpensive.
Tire houses are arguably more practical and ultimately realistic than cardboard buildings. Used tires are abundant in our oil-driven world where vehicles are common and changing tires is a fact of life. The thermal mass of a tire wall works well in summer or winter, mitigating the exterior and interior temperatures so the house is never too cold or too hot inside. Construction can also be accomplished by the home owner with relative ease.
Straw bale houses also make use of a common and regularly sized material that is relatively available and inexpensive. This regularity makes working with the building blocks relatively easy. Many such houses, once they are completed and covered outside and in, do not even look to be made of straw. Know of other architecture using creatively adapted recyclables (such as shipping container architecture)? Feel free to share in the comments below!
Check Out These Great Related Articles:
Amazing and Bizarre Green Art
Here are seven examples of green creativity that involve alternative uses of natural materials.
7 Abandoned Cities and Towns of the World
Check out these urban abandonments of the post-modern world.
Creative Green Art, Architecture and Design
Green art and design - from transforming green boxes to rotating dome homes, creative eco-art to exotic eco-landscapes and tree houses to tree sculptures.
41 Comments
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Some of the stuff is just ugly… I couldn’t imagine ever doing such a think. Artistic but quite ugly and dirty looking.
October 23rd, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Interesting, but plausible?
October 23rd, 2007 at 3:13 pm
These are very interesting. I checked out the cardboard houses. Definitely much more advanced to make something this sturdy with this type of material. Again, I am amazed.
Cheers!
October 23rd, 2007 at 7:39 pm
Many of the things you discuss here are tenets of the Earthship Biotecture movement at http://www.earthship.net/.
Tires for thermal mass and bottles/cans as placeholders in a concrete matrix are both primary tools they use. You might already know about them, but if you do I found it odd you didn’t explicitly mention them.
If you didn’t, check them out! Not exactly urban, but cool nonetheless.
October 23rd, 2007 at 11:14 pm
Um…. can someone say: ‘flammable’? :P
October 24th, 2007 at 1:36 am
The tire house is really very very cool. I am sure the thermal mass of a tire wall “works well in summer or winter, mitigating the exterior and interior temperatures so the house is never too cold or too hot inside.” it makes perfectly sense. but hey, I wouldn’t like to be around it, not to mention inside it, when a small kitchen fire breaks or my young brother fries up his alcoholic banana special LOL :)
October 24th, 2007 at 5:33 am
There’s a few more beer-can house pics on my website from a couple months back. Apparently, they’re hoping to ‘fix it up’. Only in Texas could they get a tax increase to fix up a house made of beer cans:
http://hutmacher.blogspot.com/.....loyed.html
October 24th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Auburn University in Alabama has a architecture program, the Rural Studio, that has done many projects very similar to these. Check out the Yancey Chapel (made with tires), the Cardboard Pod, and the Mason’s Bend Glass Chapel (made with old car windows). I’ve seen them in person and they are incredible.
http://cadc.auburn.edu/soa/rur.....tstype.htm
October 24th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Cool stuff - and check out Earthship Biotecture! at http://www.earthship.org
October 24th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Try heating a straw house or a cardboard house in the winter…sure they insulate well…but they also burn well. You might as well not put smoke alarms in those houses because if they catch fire everyone dies. Same goes with tires only they are worse because they slowly break down and surely let off enough chemicals to everyone dwelling in the house. These ideas are not only impractical they are just stupid. So your house is a makeshift garbage dump…how much are you really helping the environment anyways?
October 25th, 2007 at 1:46 am
@Wingman and others: Thanks for sharing those links. Earthship Biotecture is amazing stuff!
@Eric: an interesting point. However, the cardboard houses were proposed for Australia and not intended to ever be heated - only cooled. As for the tire houses: those would combust, but only after interior finishings were destroyed. At that point of a fire, any residential structure will have numerous household objects that give off toxic fumes. It is expected, generally, that people will have escaped the burning structure by then. Still, it is worth thinking about the downsides as well as the upsides of these strategies.
October 25th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
http://www.bcrockies.com/attra.....house.html
i lived out near this place… it is sooooo kool!! open for tours, but last i checked, his wife stilled lived there in the “off” season.
October 26th, 2007 at 9:08 am
That is really neat, the ultimate on recycling. I wonder though what do you do if a bottle breaks?
October 26th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
I wonder how those glasses behave under an earthquake…
This is a great post. I don’t have idea how you manage to make each and every post so interesting and to know so much about it all. I’m praising you again, I know, but you see - I don’t have any options :)
November 4th, 2007 at 2:42 am
The problem with cardboard houses, and most cardboard structures I see is that they really do not use recycled materials. It is all new, custom made cardboard, often in special, large sizes that is not commercially available. Nor are you ever likely to find something this size in the trash.
The cost of making the cardboard for these cardboard houses is on par with making them out of wood. So why bother?
November 12th, 2007 at 11:56 am
i find the cardboard house idea particularly interesting. as a furniture maker, i know that the durability of cardboard is extremely impressive when laminated together. Frank Gehry, an architect and furniture designer, made some amazing pieces from corrugated cardboard. He raved about its durability. eco-friendly and wallet-friendly is always a bonus.
November 14th, 2007 at 10:51 am
Straw bales houses stand up well when tested for flammability. Straw bales are tightly compressed which does not allow oxygen to penetrate. Further sealing with a skim surfaces adds more protection.
See this for more information:
http://www.strawbalebuilding.c.....Safety.pdf
February 1st, 2008 at 10:59 am
It irks me that photos posted always represent the most eccentric concepts of these alternative approaches to building, and the return comments frequently reflect opinions that are deficient in background knowledge, but rich in opinions . If you do your research you will find that in many places throughout the world alternative housing, (Cob, for instance) have been used for centuries with many buildings still standing today. The concept of the earth ship (tires) was developed in Mexico, and there are some facinating photos and reading on this subject. we have a family in Brantford, Ontario, Canada who were permitted to build theirs and are quite at home, offering workshops and seminars on this mode of building. Many of these tire houses do relfect a more artistic bent on the part of the owners, but there is nothing wrong with thinking outside the box and the interiors of these buildings are quiet, warm, exceed all safety codes, including fire and earthquake, and reflect a creative beauty using coloured glass bottles for colour, soft coutours, have no toxic materials so there is no off-gassing. Since they are mostly owner/designed and built, there are frequently lower or non-exisiting mortgages. Those individuals who are fortunate enough to be able to have land and build this way are resourceful, very aware of how our choices impact all of life on this planet, and are independent minded enough to want to do something about it, if not for the rest of this consumer-driven society, at least for themselves and those of the same understanding. Strawbale building, incidentally, is turning into the new “Yuppie” mode of building. I was at a strawbale building seminar three years ago and our instructor advised us that this would be so as it caught on. You need only to visit a strawbale, walk through it, touch the thick, strong walls and feel the interior warmth, strength and quietness of one of these buildings and you will feel something like awe grow within you. I have in my searches on this subject matter stumbled into some wonderful sites with numerous photos regarding people’s personal journeys in these various methods of aquiring family shelter that is both inviting and safe as well as within their economic capability. We’d all live a great deal less stressfully if we were able to do so. I hope you will find better photos for this site. Funky is okay for some folks I guess, but most of us still prefer some boudaries to our creative instincts. I don’t mean to rant here, but I wish folks would read before they assume things that are not so. Thank you.
February 13th, 2008 at 4:07 am
Love the blog, if i may ask, what software are you using? how much does it cost? where do you get it? If it’s not a secret email me some details wouldya?
thanks in advance!
April 25th, 2008 at 5:03 am
THE BEST ! now people let`s go and drink to make one of this :P
May 7th, 2008 at 8:57 am
I think these straw homes are the best idea of green homes yet. I heard about them recently and was wondering how long can they stand. Are they as strong as the old architecture for the example hagia sophia or are they a ten, twenty, thirty year investment till you must rebuild?
May 31st, 2008 at 4:51 am
Really a creative article. I was reading with up breath!
November 12th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
yv2zxwz3sworrpq9
November 20th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
must have had a mean party to make the bottle house
December 11th, 2008 at 9:19 am
I’m glad straw bale building is catching on at last. I first encountered it as a reporter 20 years ago. It’s surprising just how warm in the winter and cool in the summer such a house can be. Of course, when you consider the thickness and density of the walls, this only makes sense. Yes, the comments about how flammable they are reveal a complete lack of knowledge of the technology. A link to a solid source is already provided, so I won’t duplicate the effort. But, basically the bales form both the structural and insulation layers of the walls while concrete, plaster, ferro-crete, stucco, or other such material is sprayed, troweled, or otherwise smoothed over the interior and the exterior. The bales are thus sealed and, being very tightly compacted, simply do not burn. Even intentional exposure to the flames of propane torches only caused smoldering that required continued heat exposure to spread. A well-built straw bale house is far less likely to burn down than a traditional stick-built house.
Trackbacks
What do you think? Leave a comment!