Reusing Cars To Make Houses

I love this house, it’s totally eco-friendly, its small and one of the most unusual houses I have seen. Karl Wanaselja and Cate Leger architects made and created this 1140 Square Foot Small ‘Mc Gee’ House made out of Salvaged Cars in Berkeley.  Saw-sawing 104 salvaged car roofs from the junkyards, he covered the top floor side walls of the home like fish scales.

The awnings are more Dodge Caravan, the lower floor walls are waste from the furniture industry. In the back there is a reused shipping container

The lower wall is made of furniture industry waste called poplar bark. The awnings are side windows from Dodge Caravans. It is a 2 bedroom home with two levels and an upstairs balcony. It is just 14 ft wide but appears smaller than its actual size.

The house is resolutely green. (From their website)

• Energy performance is 43% better than required by California’s Title 24 energy code.
• The house is virtually passive solar with back up heat needed only intermittently during rain or heavy overcast periods in the winter.
• The hotwater is solar with a back up tankless water heater.
• The appliances are energy star or better.
• The toilets are dual flush.
• The yard is planted with drought tolerant or food producing plants, many of them native.
• There is no irrigation.
• The house is plumbed for a future greywater system and the gutters are laid out for future rainwater collection.

In addition, a great deal of attention was placed on using resource efficient and low toxic materials.

• All concrete contains 50% flyash cement and is colored with natural earth pigments and sealed with soybased binder from Soycrete and water based sealer from AFM.
• All framing lumber and plywood is FSC certified.
• All insulation is blown-in cellulose except under the concrete slab.
• Cabinets are built with FSC certified plywood.
• All interior doors have wheatboard cores.
• All walls and ceilings are of unpainted plaster.
• All the finish wood including trim, counters, upper floors and stairs, fences, gates, wood siding and deck railings is salvaged wood.
• Wood floors are sealed with a plant resin floor finish from Bioshield.
• Woodwork and exposed steel beams are finished with a natural linseed oil based coating from Bioshield.
• The upper floor exterior finish is salvaged car roofs with original car paint intact.
• The lower floor exterior finish is Poplar bark, from trees grown to make furniture.
• The awnings are fabricated from junked Dodge Caravan side windows.  Once advertised as “America’s best selling minivan”, now a common item in junk yards.

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• Reuse-Make Money- Wood Recycling Project
• Eco Question of the Day – FSC Wood
• Reuse Newspaper- Build a House
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Similar Posts:

• Eco Question of the Day – FSC Wood
• Reuse-Make Money- Wood Recycling Project
• Reuse Newspaper- Build a House
• 10 Tips For Buying Savaged Building Materials
• Reuse Wood Pallets- Make A Wood Pallet House