Recycled architecture is more than just novelty structures and offbeat buildings made from bottles, cans and tires – though those can be pretty cool in their own right. It’s a way to put recycled materials to use on a large scale, reduce the tremendous amount of waste typically produced during construction and stimulate creativity. In fact, the challenge of seeing salvaged and recycled materials in a new way can help break up monotonous architectural norms, even when applied to major modern projects like community centers and museums.

The act of repurposing reclaimed materials often becomes part of the aesthetic, a conscious choice to highlight the building’s sustainability factor or just raise awareness about the potential of items like shipping containers. But sometimes, you can’t tell by a glance. Materials like reclaimed tiles, recycled concrete, salvaged wood and innovative new synthetics made of waste products enable a little more subtlety and elegance.

Modern architecture made of recycled materials can help raise the profile of greener approaches to building, move the industry as a whole closer to closed-loop ideals and even preserve physical connections between past, present and future.

Carrying Pieces of the Past Into the Future

Set at the foot of China’s Taihang Mountains, rural Luotuowan village suffered from a period of decline as the country focused on expanding its urban centers, and the bulk of its structures became dilapidated. When the local government finally invested in a mass re-roofing project, many residents opted for an affordable contemporary concrete option. But making the whole village safer didn’t have to mean discarding the beautiful wooden beams from their old houses. LUO Studios, which specializes in sustainable architecture, took those old beams and transformed them into a low-cost, low-waste sculptural canopy inspired by the work of Buckminster Fuller, with the villagers assisting in the building process.The result creates a shaded gathering place for the community, and offers a reminder of Luotuowan’s past.

The stratified facade of the new SOS Children’s Villages Lavezzorio Community Center in Chicago calls to mind layers of rock and sediment beneath the surface of the earth, suggesting growth and the passage of time – but it’s also a physical reflection of the way in which the material was sourced. Studio Gang Architects used concrete aggregate waste from construction sites around the Chicago area as a major component of the building, pouring it from each source in turn to create a sort of anonymized visual record of change throughout the city. Artistic and symbolic, this choice adds to the beauty of the building, gives it a sense of enhanced identity and reduces waste all at once without shouting its recycled nature from across the street.

Though best known for his stunning timber structures, Japanese architect Kengo Kuma is deft at making smart use of other materials as well, as seen here in the China Academy of Arts’ Folk Museum. The complex in Hangzhou recycles the old roof tiles of local houses into its own sculptural terraced roof as well as a shade screen along some of the open walls. “Their sizes are all different, and that helps the architecture merge into the ground naturally,” says Kuma.

In Mexico City, Alonso de Garay Architects continue a local trend of transforming the remains of dilapidated old buildings into modern architecture with ‘Recycled Building,’ an apartment complex with 26 units. Noting that these structures were too damaged to use thanks to “decades of carelessness and decay,” the architects see the act of recycling them into a contemporary building as a sensitive process of renewal, albeit one the that has helped transform these areas into some of “the most expensive and desired” in the city, contributing to the displacement of lower income residents (which is not exactly sustainable.)

Finding Surprising Uses for Mundane Waste Materials

Visible soda cans, beer bottles and tires incorporated into buildings are most often associated with the quirky nature of “earthships,” a type of passive solar earth shelter made of natural and up cycled materials. Whimsical and sculptural, these thermally heated and cooled buildings are about as sustainable as contemporary architecture gets, but they aren’t for everyone (or every climate). That doesn’t mean architects can’t use some of the same recycling tricks for modern buildings, with results that have less of a handmade appearance.

Designer Hyunje Joo came up with an innovative facade for a building in South Korea made of repurposed plastic baskets, giving the old building a facelift that diffuses sunlight, adds privacy and can be dismantled and recycled when the structure is demolished. 1,500 of the semi-transparent baskets create a screened envelope around the building.

“The surface minimizes the separation between the inside and outside, as light and silhouettes beyond the space show through. Over the course of the day, changes show on the surface of the wall due to the diffusion and reflection of the material. The passage of time is more actively sensed from both inside and outside, as these light effects stimulate our senses.”

Can you guess what Shau Bandung architects used to create the pixelated facade on this Microlibrary in Kampung, Indonesia? Believe it or not, they’re ice cream containers.

“As the building is located in a tropical climate, we aimed to create a pleasant indoor climate without the use of air conditioning. Therefore, we looked  for available façade materials in the neighborhood that were cost efficient, could shade the interior, let daylight pass and enable enough cross ventilation. Initially, we found several small vendors selling used, white and translucent jerry cans. However, prior to construction the jerry cans were no longer available in the quantities we required. Instead, we found used plastic ice cream buckets that were being sold in bulk. This turned out for the better as they have a more positive image and are more stable when cutting the bottom open for cross ventilation.”

From afar, you might not even guess that there’s anything unusual about this office building in Shanghai. The unusual facade material chosen for ‘Can Cube’ doesn’t reveal itself until you get much closer. Archi-Union Architects used a system of used aluminum soda cans enclosed in an aluminum frame, explaining that up cycling the cans for a new purpose in their current form actually saves more energy and materials than sending them through the standard recycling process to reclaim the metal.

“Enclosing them in an aluminium frame keeps the structure light and easily adjustable by its occupants. Window-sash type sections within the façade provide the user with full control of sunlight/daylight in all seasons. The façade works alongside underground heating and cooling devices, rainwater filtration and solar energy systems, which all provide more efficiency and minimize the wastage of energy.”

Taking advantage of the affordability, accessibility and modularity of shipping containers, these architectural projects envision radical new ways to expand houses, elevate slums off the streets, occupy disused industrial sites or just make it easy to insert both a hot tub and swimming pool into your backyard with minimal effort.

Sliced Shipping Container Home by LOT-EK

Sliced and reassembled shipping containers create an angular home rising from street level in Williamsburg, Brooklyn as if wedged into the ground. Containtertecture firm LOT-EK retained the recognizable form of the crates, but eliminated their boxiness, reassembling them in a way that produces a spacious interior and a series of terraced outdoor spaces on the sloping roof.

Beat Box Apartment Complex by Arkitema Architects

The Danish neighborhood of Musicon, located adjacent to the Roskilde Festival area, could get 30 new apartments in a complex made of 48 shipping containers called ‘Beat Box.’ The neighborhood aims to add 1,000 jobs and 1,000 homes over the next 15 years, with a focus on sustainability. “Beat box is a fun and challenging project,” say the architects. “We are working within the very specific and set shapes of the container but are still able to transform them into something different and new. By preserving every containers exterior appearance, and placing them on the concrete base and the significant steel structures, we are providing Musicon with a whole new and authentic residential building.”

Rooftop Shipping Containers Expand Korean Home

Two shipping containers sliced into each other in a cross shape add extra space to an existing home in Korea. Multidisciplinary firm Starsis maximized natural light in the structure with their placement of the windows and created some new rooftop terraces adjacent to the containers. It definitely seems like one of the easiest ways to expand a structure.

URBANTAINER Expansion for the National Theater Company of Korea

Shipping crates create a modular metal expansion called ‘Urbantainer’ for the National Theater Company of Korea’s main building, adding space for a lobby, communal lounge, bar and cafe while remaining in balance with the main building.The crates were inserted into the main shell to maintain a column-free internal space capable of hosting large groups of people; moving partition walls close or open various areas to allow the space to become one big theater.

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Try To Contain Yourself 12 Shipping Container Projects Play With Modularity

Going beyond simple stacks of shipping crates and ripped-apart pallets, these creative upcycled architecture projects reclaim stuff like corrugated iron, 5-gallon water bottles, old doors and even junk left over from the London Olympics as building materials and truly elevate them to new heights. These projects offer some fresh ideas, use the materials in new ways or demonstrate how recycled and upcycled architecture integrate into modern designs.

Stedsans in the Woods: Upcycled Permaculture Farm in Sweden

This permaculture farm and retreat nestled in the woods of southern Sweden will function as a “lab for discovering better ways to eat, live and connect with nature,” including a farm-to-table restaurant and a collection of beautiful treehouse-like cabins made of waste wood, fragments of old barns and glass from abandoned greenhouses.

Rising Moon Pavilion Made of Recycled Water Bottles

Reflecting itself into a perfect sphere on the surface of a still pool, ‘Rising Moon’ by Hong Kong-based studio Daydreamers Design is a geodesic dome fitted with 4,800 five-gallon polycarbonate water bottles, each acting as a lantern to help the structure glow. At night, they transmit light from inside out, while during the day, the interior is illuminated by the sun. LED torches are attached to pre-fabricated triangular modules with the bottles fitted over them, and an additional 2,300 bottles hang from the ceiling.

Parasitic Student Residences Made of Pallets for Paris

French architect and graffiti artist Stephane Malka proposes ‘Ame-Lot,’ a series of parasitic structures made of upcycled pallets and other reclaimed materials that attach to existing architecture. The pallets fold and unfold to let more light into the interior, and the structures can be constantly rearranged and added to as necessary for growth, becoming a visual meter of consumption in the city.

Collage House Made of Recycled Doors by S+PS Architects

Over a dozen reclaimed doors and windows salvaged from demolished houses in the city make up a highly unusual and creative collage-style facade for a Mumbai residence by S+PS Architects. This double-height curtain wall makes for some seriously striking curb appeal, and sets the tone for the living room as well. The architects also incorporated other found materials into the home, like metal pipe leftovers pieced together like bamboo to form a ‘pipe wall,’

K Valley House Clad in Reclaimed Iron by Herbst Architects

Rusted corrugated iron sheets resembling the sheds often seen in the New Zealand countryside contrast beautifully with the greenery of the Kauaeranga Valley in ‘K Valley House’ by Herbst Architects. “We positioned the form straddling the ridgeline, engaged with the slope at the high end and floating above the land as it falls away,” they say.

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Acclaim For The Reclaimed 14 Cool Upcycled Architecture Projects

Creative conversion projects transform old disused structures like factories, churches, grain silos, cisterns and slaughterhouses for new purposes, helping them avoid demolition. Often abandoned yet still bearing historic, aesthetic and functional value, these buildings become the basis for unusual homes, offices, spas and museums.

La Fabrica: Cement Factory Turned Private Residence, Barcelona, Spain

A sprawling cement factory in Barcelona, built in the post-World War I era and containing structures in all sorts of interesting shapes, has become architect Ricardo Bofill’s home and studio. Bofill transformed the complex by demolishing strategic areas to create voids for open-plan spaces interspersed with gardens. Years after he began, the home is covered in greenery in a way that seems chaotic at first, as if nature is taking the formerly abandoned space over whether it was converted or not. But a closer look reveals planned rooftop gardens atop cylindrical silos, palm trees and lush ivy. Many elements of the original structures were preserved as interesting architectural details.

Military Bunker Turned Wine Museum, China

An old military bunker 1.5 hours outside Shanghai is now an unusual industrial-style winery, transformed by China-based wine lifestyle and consulting firm Shanghai Godolphin. Built inside a Chenshan Mountain cave over 80 years ago, the structure was once used to store artillery and anti-aircraft machine guns. Today, organic installations of wooden wine boxes almost seem to have populated the space naturally, like bees building their honeycomb in an abandoned vehicle.

Underground Crypt to Spa, France

Hundreds of years ago, this subterranean space near Saint Pierre’s Church in eastern France was likely used as a crypt. Now, the underground facility serves as the luxurious Atrium Spa & Beauté, transformed by Italian designer Alberto Apostoli into a series of soothing rooms full of tubs and massage tables.

Abandoned 1920s Bank to Co-Working Space, Montreal

How would you like to go do your daily work or write your novel in a gorgeous historic space instead of your local Starbucks? Architect Henri Cleinge oversaw the conversion of an opulent former 1920s bank into co-working space ‘Crew,’ inserting plenty of tables and private pods beneath the dramatic vaulted ceilings of the 12,000-square-meter space.

Water Cistern to Private Home, Madrid

A two-level water cistern site near Madrid is now a stunning sculptural home after an adaptive renovation by Valdivieso Arquitectos. This is one example of a conversion that uses the original structures as a guide, but mostly leaves them behind, the final product showing few signs of what the home used to be. Yet the shapes of that cistern determined the unusual curves of the residence, including the glazed wall looking onto a courtyard.

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Better Than Before 10 Unwanted Structures Transformed For New Uses

Most urban environments aren’t lacking in sunlight – it’s a lack of square footage and healthy soil that makes it hard to use these spaces to grow food. While many a high-tech concept design has envisioned vertical skyscraper farms or entire cities built from scratch, we need low-cost solutions that can be implemented into disused urban spaces, easily assembled and moved when necessary. These smart urban farming and gardening ideas reclaim pallets, cardboard tubes, shipping containers and bicycle wheels, and many take advantage of sunny available spaces on rooftops, in abandoned buildings or along stretches of hot concrete walls.

The Growroom: IKEA Flat-Pack Spherical Garden

Developed by IKEA’s external innovation hub, Space10, the Growroom is a spherical structure that makes it easy to grow lots of food in a compact space thanks to its unique design. Since shipping the structure around the world would be too expensive and negate some of the benefits of local food sourcing, IKEA decided to offer the structure as an open-source design built with plywood, a CNC milling machine and a rubber hammer.

Floating Gardens in an Abandoned Chinese Factory

This area along the Pearl River Delta in Shenzhen was once a thriving community relying on fish ponds and water-based commerce, but most of that has since vanished in the face of rapid urbanization, leaving many abandoned structures behind. ‘Floating Fields’ occupies this space and makes it useful again as an aquaponic garden. Created for the Urbanism\Architecture Bi-City Biennale, the installation is an experiment in water-based gardening, algae cultivation, sustainable food production and water filtering in an underutilized urban environment.

Recycled Cardboard Tube Garden

Water-resistant, recyclable cardboard tubes provide the basis for a modern pop-up garden in Sydney by Australian design studio Foolscap. The tubes were used to build the walls of a temporary outdoor recreation space, taking inspiration from the formwork used to cast concrete columns in a nearby Sydney neighborhood. In addition to an outdoor theater, food and co-working areas, ‘Wulugul Pop Up’ had its own edible garden full of native plants.

Grid Garden on Wheels

This clever portable garden rests on reclaimed bicycle wheels and features an open gridded design so sunlight can reach tiered plants. The ‘Why not in the garden?’ installation by A4A Rivolta Savioni Studio was literally rolled out into a Milan city square to demonstrate how concrete urban spaces can be temporarily used for food production.

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Reclaiming Urban Food Production 12 Smart Designs For Farms Gardens